The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit just ruled on a matter of first impression among circuit courts–the constitutionality of the treating attorneys as “debt relief agencies” under provisions of the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Creditors’ Consumers’ Protection Act. (Freudian slip…) In so doing, the 8th Circuit struck down a major BAPCPA provision that inartfully restricts attorneys’ ability to give clients advice about how to prepare their finances in contemplation of filing for bankruptcy.

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