NLA REVIEW	THE MEMBER'S PAGE	Spring 1997

I was excited to have received a letter from a Bankruptcy Section member, Mr. Philip Morrissey, in reference to my article in the Winter 1996 NLA Review. He asked that I include in this article some suggested remedies to problems in the Bankruptcy area enunciated in that article. This request brought to my attention the fact that this Bankruptcy Section Page may be viewed as the Chairmen's Page.

I want you to know that the Bankruptcy Section of the Review is not strictly the Chairman's page but is available to all members who might wish to present an article for publication.^* It is a "Members Page." It is the responsiveness to the membership and of the membership upon which the NLA was founded and which this Section wishes to instill in earnest.

Therefore, I ask that you, the members, provide me with your thoughts on suggested Bankruptcy reforms or any other bankruptcy matter. They can be as intricate as a formal article intended for publication in its entirety or merely comments sent to me by letter or communicated to me by phone which I would then incorporate into an article in the next NLA Review issue. Please feel free to call me at (800) 925-5351 with any suggestions you may have regarding the NLA in general or the Bankruptcy Section, in particular.

In hopes that I receive additional responses from you in the interim, I will refrain from listing possible remedies in this issue and reserve them for the next issue when I can present views of the members and not merely my own.

I do feel it necessary to clarify a typographical error which existed in my prior article. As to the Chapter 13 plan completion problem, I am afraid the problem is worse than reflected in the article. Approximately two of three Chapter 13 Plans fail. While the numbers certainly vary between Federal District Courts, the Chapter 13 numbers tend to break out as follows: 1/3 get dismissed, 1/3 convert to Chapter 7 and 1/3 complete their plan. These figures are very rough and stem from conversation with several Chapter 13 trustees. Bear in mind also that many trustees have not had files long enough (60 months) to get a good read on the total number of plans that will actually complete.