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I posted this yesterday, but threads are piling up and sinking fast since it's so crazy here, so I thought I'd post it again since it's so important to many people. I'm a paralegal with thorough knowledge of and experience in the Fair Debt Collection Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the bankruptcy laws; I'd like to use that knowledge to assist Katrina victims who need help with debt/bills/bankruptcy. DU lawyers, anyone want to join up with me to help and coordinate efforts?
The new bankruptcy laws will go into effect on October 17, but that might not be enough time for victims who've lost everything and have no way to even get back on their feet yet. And we all know how quickly we get insurance checks. :sarcasm: :sarcasm: Senator Feingold is attempting to get an extension on the implementation date of the new laws for these people, but we all know how the current congress feels about that. They're far more likely to pass indemnification and other laws benefitting the insurance companies and the corporations than they are to be bothered to do anything for the victims.
It's not just bankruptcy they may need help with. Debts, bills, and debt collectrolls wait for no one and will be hounding these people before too long (a decent interval to them is maybe, oh, a week at most); they don't give a shit what you're going through, if you've lost your house and car and family and everything else, it doesn't matter to them. There's a lot of red tape and communications that need to be dealt with as far as debt and bills, (collectrolls want their fancy commissions, after all) and that's the last thing these people need to deal with right now.
Ford and GM are offering a 90-day amnesty on their car payments, which is a good start. However, you have to actually apply for their program, and many of the victims have no way to do that if they have nothing. So that's another area I'd be glad to help with.
Since I wondered how to go about communicating with people who may have no access to computers or faxes or phones or anything else, someone on the thread suggested setting something up with the Red Cross, which I thought was a good idea. I'd also like to hear, as I said, from DU lawyers who may want to help as well so we can coordinate efforts. I'm only a paralegal, after all, not an attorney, so I'm limited in what I can actually do.
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