Unless some one informed the dentists office that debtkid had filed for bankruptcy the office would have no way of knowing that the invoice was not legal. It may not have actually been a harassing and illegal missive. Additionally, unless debtkid listed that $90 bill on his bankruptcy filing, it was not discharged. The court only discharges what is presented to them in the filings.

My problem is only with the fact that the dental office BILLED you for those services after your bankruptcy. If you owed them the money when you filed for bankruptcy, they are responsible for canceling your debt, and thus should know you no longer owe it.

When a creditor continues to provide invoices to a debtor who has no legal obligation for that debt, the creditor is attempting to skirt the legal system and collect money to which it is not rightfully entitled by appealing to the debtor’s heartstrings. There are several reasons why this is a problem. First, if everyone did it, even just the small mom and pop businesses (as you seem to distinguish these as somehow special), they would undermine debtors’ fresh start. Can you imagine, Debt Kid, if you had just wiped away your debt in bankruptcy but your creditors were allowed to continue to harass you by mailing you bills and calling you all the time? What if they were just the mom and pop stores, but they tried to manipulate you by trying to make you feel bad about not paying them, or told you you could never purchase their products again if you didn’t pay up on the old debt? Wouldn’t you feel like you’d just run through the bankruptcy process for nothing? The great majority debtors are in bankruptcy for reasons entirely beyond their control — because they were too poor to carry medical insurance and fell behind on medical payments, or because they lost their jobs and had to put their groceries on credit cards to feed their kids. Would you say it is ok for businesses to harass these people until they pay back every last dime post-bankruptcy, so long as they are mom and pop stores?

Secondly, the theory of bankruptcy is that debtors often have limited funds by the time they file, so general unsecured creditors should all be placed on equal footing as to the percentage of their debt that they collect. I would argue that if mom and pop stores were given a free pass to take more from debtors, big corporations would run to their lobbyists to try to change the federal laws to allow THEM to do the same, and the entire system would collapse. The system only works to the extent that it is FAIR.

Again, I have no problem with Debt Kid or any other debtor recognizing the great hit that a particular business (or other creditor, like a family member) is taking from his or her bankruptcy, and voluntarily deciding to pay this money back. However, the debtor does not legally owe the money, and the business should NOT be able to continue to mail bills as though he/she did.