Bankruptcy Indiana

As my Indiana bankruptcy blog readers know by now, nothing brings a smile to my face faster than a good-news Indiana employment report.  That’s because, without well-paid jobs, clients emerging from Chapter 7 bankruptcy can’t get back to managing their finances, keeping the bills paid, and beginning to rebuild.  Without well-paid, steady work, Chapter 13 bankruptcy clients have difficulty keep up with their three to five year court-supervised debt repayment plans.  Sometimes, the Chapter 13 bankruptcy itself fails!

For me, therefore, news from Planned Parenthood of Indiana was nothing to smile about.  According to the Indianapolis Star, Planned Parenthood “will chop 25 jobs as part of a restructuring prompted by a reshuffling of federal funds”.  Six Planned Parenthood clinics around the state will be closing.

Meanwhile, another 25 jobs might be in jeopardy at Washington Township Schools, I learned, in this case teaching jobs.  I’m especially chagrined when relatively well-paid positions are lost, and that seems to be exactly the situation at Planned Parenthood and potentially the situation in schools.

In fact, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood summed up the situation in words I hear a lot of every day in my four bankruptcy law offices around Indiana: “…the clinics could not sustain their operations just with the income they generated.” (Doesn’t that sum up just about all bankruptcy?)

If you’ve ever been tempted to laugh and cry at the same time, you’ll understand the way I felt hearing news about the job fair held recently at the new Niagara bottling plant in Plainfield.  2,000 or so applicants had shown up there by noon, all applying for 37 jobs.

You know, even though this happens less frequently these days, I still hear disparaging remarks about bankruptcy, to the effect of people overspending and then wanting society to let them off the hook when it comes time to pay the bills.  I just wish those people could have waited in the long, long line over at Niagara.  I wish they would understand that, in the vast majority of cases, it’s not irresponsibility, but uncontrollable setbacks such as job losses and medical emergencies that drive people to select bankruptcy.

Niagara owner Andy Peykoff, Sr. said it all, I think, when he told the Indianapolis Star at the job fair, “This is the best I’ve seen. It’s also sad, because when I look in their faces, I see heads of families who need jobs.”