As a long-time member of ABI, I appreciate that the Journal is a forum for the exchange of ideas, and I recognize that a contributor's column can't be fact-checked as these are similar to op-ed pieces, and thus based on the author's opinion. Publication in the Journal conveys a legitimacy, however, that can be unwarranted, as in the recent writings of Leslie Linfield, who has written several articles critical of credit counseling.

Since the passage of bankruptcy reform, there are many people promoting themselves as credit counseling industry "experts." The counseling provision of the new bankruptcy law was, of course, controversial. But readers deserve an antidote of perspective on the agendas coming from some who appear to be hostile to nonprofit credit counseling and/or those who seek to damage the credibility of EOUST-approved agencies.

Linfield in particular seems to favor the exploitation of isolated instances or irregular circumstances of fumbling as those of us handling large volumes of work have labored to get through the sausage-making stage of pre-filing counseling. She and others have shown no problem with pushing disingenuous, incorrect information. Some have also perpetuated the idea that all agencies want to divert attorneys' filers into debt-management plans (not true). Any author who is also a competitor in the pre-filing and debtor education arenas should cause readers to "consider the source," as they say. It should also speak for itself when self-promoters never quote any sources from actual agencies.

That being said, we want to credit all of you who are raising valid issues such as "what will the required counseling and education really accomplish?" Also, what have been the stumbling points as we have hurried to operationalize our end of the law and how are they being fixed? We admit that there have been systems glitches and many other errors. But for every one thing that went wrong, there were many more that went right.

We do want to hear from our clients, constituents and stakeholders on how we can get better. In the bigger picture of the law, credit counseling is just one sideshow. We do not want to be an obstacle; our objective is to fulfill our mandate in describing options, refer the client back to their attorney if somehow the filer is interested in a non-bankruptcy option (very rare), and to provide some remedial money management education.

We would like to be a resource to ABI members on how the credit counseling industry is handling the counseling and debtor-education requirements under bankruptcy reform. If any attorney, judge or reader has questions or concerns, I encourage you to contact me at (800) 947-3752, ext. 702, or you may e-mail me. I await your call.

—Dianne L. Wilkman
President/CEO, Springboard Nonprofit Consumer Credit Management [email protected]