Bankruptcy judge hopes he’s bad for business – his own
April 22, 2008
A federal bankruptcy judge, concerned about the number of young adults in his courtroom, started the Credit Abuse Resistance Education (CARE) Program several years ago to help high-school seniors and college freshmen — and many older adults, as well — appreciate the difference between a credit card and an ATM.
“They’re 18 years old and they’re being bombarded with credit-card offers for the first time,” says Judge John C. Ninfo II, of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Western New York, in the April issue of The Third Branch: Newsletter of the Federal Courts. “They’re hungry consumers and they’re getting their first taste of freedom. They’re the ones who are really at risk. They treat a credit card as if it’s an ATM machine on somebody else’s account. They don’t even think of it as debt.”
The CARE Program’s Web site has a “Top 10” list of financial tips for high-school and college students, with some classic bits of advice (pay your bills on time; create a budget) and some that are bit more modern (avoid impulse shopping on the Internet; abusing credit cards can cost you a job or keep you out of graduate school).
With contacts in all 50 states, the program also can help arrange “financial literacy” seminars at high schools and colleges.
“Usually, judges only get involved with social problems after the problems have turned into disasters…,” one fellow jurist writes on the Web site; but the CARE program “allows judges to become part of the solution by helping young persons learn to manage debt before they are in over their heads.”
Sure, it might sound like wishful thinking or preaching to the choir – but do you have a better idea?
STEVE LASH, Legal Affairs Writer
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