The most common reasons behind bankruptcy filings are health care costs, divorce and periods of unemployment, according to Robert Lawless, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who was critical of the law in testimony before the Senate.

CNN: Jury still out on bankruptcy reforms

But a new study by two law professors offers an additional, surprising explanation: A change in the way the bankruptcy courts report statistics may have led analysts to mistakenly believe that bankruptcy was no longer a key escape hatch for entrepreneurs, conclude Elizabeth Warren of Harvard University and Robert Lawless of the University of Nevada.

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