Social Security Attorneys as Debt-Relief Agencies?

Often, bankruptcy is a reasonable consideration for Social Security disability claimants, because they are desperately poor and have huge medical bills hanging over their heads. However, the National Law Journal reports that the new bankruptcy act defines anyone who provides any bankruptcy assistance as a debt-relief agency. Debt-relief agencies are subject to dramatic limitations under the bankruptcy law. For instance, debt-relief agencies cannot counsel a debtor to incur additional debt -- and counseling a Social Security disability client to continue seeing their doctor would be to counsel a debtor to incur additional debt. Bankruptcy attorneys are warning that attorneys in other fields of the law who counsel their clients to consider bankruptcy may unwittingly become debt-relief agencies and subject to potentially dramatic penalties.