This particular sovcit was trying to charge the court 500 dollars per appearance for his tax evasion trial already.

Bankruptcy has been largely put out of reach for lay American residents since the Bankruptcy Act of 2005. You're severally limited in when you can claim bankruptcy (you really do need to be approaching pennilessness) and even then there are a host of debts you're still not legally allowed to discharge (credit cards explicitly being extremely difficult to escape).

The modern debt collection industry is juiced to the gills precisely because debt collectors now have far more tools they can use to extract payment from delinquent debtors and debtors have virtually no method of voiding these claims against them. Even at pennies on the dollar, buying debt is worth it if you know now to put the screws to people.

I genuinely feel sorry for the guy, because he's likely just getting suckered coming and going. Loaned money by a creditor who knows he can't pay it back. Debt sold to a rapacious collections agency that is harassing him to no end. And now some "Get Out Of Debt Easy" snake oil salesman has pumped his brain full of poison, very likely while bilking him out of another stack of cash.

I declare... BANKRUPTCY!!!!

done