Identifying Fraud, Abuse, and Error in Personal Bankruptcy Filings

by Clancy, Noreen; Carroll, Stephen J.

• ISBN13: 9780833041708
• ISBN10: 0833041703
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-10-09
• Publisher: RAND Corporation

Summary

The U.S. Trustee Program (USTP), part of the U.S. Department of Justice, identifies and measures fraud, abuse, and error in personal bankruptcy filings. USTP asked the RAND Corporation to assist it in thinking about how to do this better. The authors conclude that a data-enabled case filing system, incorporating lessons from the IRS and GSA as well as the private sector, may be the direction for the future of the bankruptcy court system.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Background	p. 2
Research Approach	p. 3
Organization of This Monograph	p. 4
The Bankruptcy System	p. 5
Chapter 7 Bankruptcy	p. 5
Chapter 11 Bankruptcy	p. 6
Chapter 12 Bankruptcy	p. 7
Chapter 13 Bankruptcy	p. 7
Bankruptcy Petitions and Schedules	p. 7
Processing Bankruptcy Cases	p. 7
Identifying Debtor Fraud, Abuse, or Error	p. 9
Procedures Now Used to Identify Debtor Fraud, Abuse, or Error	p. 10
Private Trustees' Case Reviews	p. 10
Field Office Case Reviews	p. 11
Tips	p. 11
Debtor Audits	p. 12
Observations of the Practices of Others in Detecting Fraud	p. 13
Private Sector	p. 14
Public Sector	p. 14
Research Suggestions	p. 21
Data-Enabled Filings	p. 21
Research Costs and Priorities	p. 22
Ongoing Research: Debtor Audits	p. 22
Potential Future Research Using Debtor Audit Project Data	p. 24
Suggested New Research	p. 26
Other Study Group Suggestions	p. 31
Summary and Conclusions	p. 33
Lessons Learned and Transferable Processes	p. 33
How Might USTP Develop Indicators of Fraud, Abuse, and Error?	p. 35
How Might USTP Estimate the Prevalence of Fraud, Abuse, and Error?	p. 35
What Future Research Tasks Could USTP Conduct to Develop Data and Knowledge That Would Enable It to More Effectively Identify Fraud, Abuse, and Error in the Bankruptcy system?	p. 36
Study Group Members	p. 39
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