The rules for Ch. 7 have been changed. You now have to come up with a repayment schedule when you file bankruptcy. Hurricane victims were not grandfathered out of the new laws, by the way.
New Orleans should never be rebuilt in the same low places. Nature will always reclaim the swamps, no matter what piddly levees we build. People should have considered that when buying property, and the rest of us should certainly NOT be expected to insure reconstruction there through any government insurance. How do we know that another hurricane won't hit NO next year, or five years or ten? It's a bad location for a city of any real size.
But, but, but..............IT"S THE LAW, so sez CB.
Common misconception. The recent amendments to the bankruptcy code (Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA)) do NOT get rid of Chapter 7 discharges.
In fact, it may even be easier. Time will tell, but that's what the consumer bankruptcy lawyers are saying.
It does throw a couple of procedural roadblocks in the way, but those are easily surmounted.