Bankruptcy: Materials and Cases (American Casebook Series) 3rd Edition

Seriously the worst legal text book I've ever been forced to use for class. If you are a bankruptcy professor considering using this textbook for your class, please do yourself and your students a favor and find a different book.1. Typos. There are AT LEAST one typo per page in this book. Somehow the editors forgot the difference between a period and a comma because they are used interchangeably probably a hundred times. Not to mention the provisions of the Bankruptcy Code that are reproduced in the textbook INCORRECTLY (which is especially bad for a Code-based legal system such as bankruptcy in which a simple "and" "or" mix up can be huge). My best guess is that the authors dictated this book to their respective secretaries, and the revision process ended there. Some may think typos aren't a big deal, but the frequency of them makes reading this book SO disjointing that it is nearly impossible to sit and read a section without having to re-read and re-read sentences because they just don't make sense. (See attached picture for an example.)2. Poor humor. It is horribly ironic that the first sentence of this textbook is footnoted with a snarky comment directed toward the author's high school English teacher about getting to use sentence fragments in his own book, since the rest of the book is so poorly written. The joke doesn't really come off when the rest of the book reads as if it were actually written by a high school student. The number of bad jokes in this book are too numerous to say much more on.3. Lack of explanation. The method of this book is terrible. It basically goes as such: "This section of bankruptcy is difficult to understand. Stupid joke. Inaccurate reproduction of the relevant Code section. Problem." The authors fail to give a useful plain-language discussion of any Code section. To be sure, there is text, it's just not very helpful.4. Inconsistency. The book is made up of cases, problems, and review questions. But it is very disjointed. There will randomly be three pages of review questions after a case that introduce new material, while after some cases there will conspicuously be zero review questions or notes. And don't get me started on the problems. My professor would assign, for example, Unit 9 problems 1 through 3. Sure enough, there are two Problem 9-3's. And it happens more than once.I'm sure these authors are great lawyers and professors, but it feels like they didn't put much effort into writing and, more importantly, editing this book. Perhaps I should be more disappointed in West Publishing because, really, they should know better.

This is a prime example of overpriced law books for students. Granted, the authors are experts in bankruptcy law. But the book has not been revised since 2010, and after the prefaces the educational material is considerably less than 500 pages. With a list price of about $200, you are buying this information at over 40 cents a page! If this hardcover casebook had been published in paperback the list price could probably be cut in half. No wonder the rental law book business is booming on Amazon, where you can rent for a semester at a fraction of the buy price. But as the number of law students decrease, price gouging by the law book publishers will likely continue. Note the following: The authors have published an up-to-date statutory supplement, which might be worth considering for this four year old text (ISBN 9780314288882). Also, the senior author published a second book in 2012 on bankruptcy law in West's Nutshell series at a fraction of the price of this volume (ISBN 978-0314279132). Unfortunately, the latter is not necessarily an adequate substitute for this more expensive casebook..

I was going to give this only one star, but I bumped it up to two stars for being shorter than many law school textbooks. Considering the number of typos throughout the text, you would think this book would be cheaper. I'm considering rereading it after the semester is over to count them all up. But, let's be real; ain't nobody got time for that (which also happens to be the authors' philosophy on spellcheck).

Terrible amount of typos. The book is also poorly edited, with many important facts in cases simply edited out with ellipses. I had to look up the cases to find facts, such as what chapter the debtor was filing for bankruptcy under. Apparently, in a case book, that's not important?Citations are wrong (pictured; supposed to be 28 USC; not 8) which is HORRIBLE for statutory book. I'm convinced this was never edited. As I go through the book more and look up cases and more statutes, I'm finding case citations are also consistently wrong. I cannot believe how awful this book is.Also, I'm not buying text books for humor. That was terrible.

This textbook is very easy to read and understand. Unlike others that just ramble on, David Epstein includes enough information to be useful and enough humor to keep it interesting. I would recommend using this book in conjunction with the Principles of Bankruptcy book also written by Epstein.

Exactly as advertised.