Biden also voted against a law that prohibits lawsuits designed to bankrupt law-abiding firearm manufacturers.

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Paul Steven Singerman, the lawyer for Ruden McClosky, a bankrupt law firm that won court permission to keep some insider-pay details confidential, explained the practice.

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That being said, states like Florida (49), Georgia (57) and Illinois (42) have the most failures, but Florida has a law that prohibits a judgment that would bankrupt a defendant.

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After Detkin came aboard, he started working his contacts in Silicon Valley, cold-calling law firms, licensing agencies and patent agents to identify bankrupt or distressed clients who were interested in selling patent portfolios.

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On the other hand, the law is not as onerous as it might be, because the fact that a bankrupt cannot go bust again for years makes him more attractive to certain lenders after a filing than before.

ECONOMIST: America goes bust

Why should farmers enjoy special protection? (A silly question, perhaps, in a world where governments routinely stuff rustic pockets with taxpayers' money, but one that needs to be asked.) Another worry, says John Copeland, a professor at the National Centre for Agricultural Law Research and Information in Fayetteville, Arkansas, is that tobacco firms might use these laws to bankrupt their critics.

ECONOMIST: Food-disparagement laws

The investigation of the Enron affair is widening on two fronts: Lawyers for Enron shareholders will expand their action to include charges against Enron's investment banks and law firms, adding to claims already filed against Enron executives, board members, its auditor and the bankrupt company itself.

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