http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-824685.mp3
Kansas City, Mo. – Bankruptcy court filings are up nearly twenty percent in Missouri, ten point three percent in Kansas compared with thirty one percent nationally.The period covered was from 2007 to 2008. Kansas City attorney Jeff Wagoner specializes in these cases and says bankruptcy actually acts as a kind of pressure relief valve for society, "No matter how hopeless it may seem, there's always something. I've seen a lot of folks that have come in and are being very, very hard on themselves and we get them through that and things will get better. You have to have hope."
In the last two to three months, Wagoner says he has seen a shift in bankruptcy filings from those who ran into a mortgage crisis to men and women who are now losing jobs to layoffs.