FEDERAL JUDGE, "LIKE SO MANY OTHERS", FILES CHAPTER 7 BANKRUPTCY

California federal district court judge Otis Wright II, of California's federal central district, has filed for Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy protection.

Bankruptcy is the federal remedy for debtors to cope with overwhelming debt, and it is governed and operated under Title 11 of the U.S. Code. Chapter 7 bankruptcy is commonly called "straight" bankruptcy.

[see, pp. 52-56, "Bankruptcy Fundamentals", Legal Consumer Tips and Secrets, by Charles Jerome Ware, iUniverse (2011)]

U.S. District Court judges earn about $174,000 a year.

Judge Wright, a George W. Bush appointee who was confirmed in 2007, has filed for personal bankruptcy, a rare thing for a federal judge. A trustee plans to put Judge Wright's house in Rancho Palos Verdes in Los Angeles County on the market, in a bid to generate funds for creditors, according to documents filed recently in Central California bankruptcy court. The asking price: about $1.2 million.

Judge Wright listed assets of $833,426 and liabilities of $895,292 at the time of his Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing late last year. He said in the filing that he owed about $800,000. He and his wife, Evelyn, a self-employed social worker, had accumulated more than $70,000 in credit-card debt, including $12,740 on a Nordstrom card, according to the filing.

A lawyer for the couple said the judge drained his retirement funds to pay off a large lump of debt before filing for bankruptcy. "What he did was everything he could to pay his creditors," the attorney said of the judge. "But like so many others, he's under water."

[WSJ, Monday, April 30, 2012, p. B5]