Friday, April 4, 2014

New Research Guide to Bankruptcy Law

Bankruptcy! Do Not Pass Go; Do Not Collect $200. Most people first learn the concept of bankruptcy as children, when they run out of money in the board game Monopoly. If they are lucky, that's the extent of their experience with bankruptcy. Unfortunately, more than one million consumers filed some type of bankruptcy petition in the federal courts just last year. As the U.S. Courts' Bankruptcy Statistics page details, bankruptcy is a harsh reality for consumers and businesses alike. It's also a complex area of law for legal researchers. A brand-new research guide in the Goodson Law Library will point you to the appropriate sources of law and explanatory texts.

From the quick general primer of Bankruptcy Basics to the nineteen-volume treatise Collier on Bankruptcy, the new research guide on Bankruptcy Law covers resources aimed at attorneys as well as those written for consumers. The guide also outlines free and subscription-based sources for the various statutes, court opinions, and legislative history materials.

You can access the new guide on Bankruptcy Law, as well as guides for 33 other legal topics, on our Research Guides list. For help with using any of the listed sources, be sure to Ask a Librarian.