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CloserLook Search Services Announces a New Search Application for Skip Trace

CloserLook Search Services Announces the Release of Gotcha!A powerful new Internet search tool for skip tracing. It is not just another white pages look up. Rather, it combines the deep web search capabilities of the CloserLook™ Search Engine with complex intelligence about the moving habits of people.

Montreal (PRWEB) February 18, 2005 -- CloserLook Search Services announces the release of Gotcha! A powerful new Internet search tool which will help you find a new phone number for any individual or business in Canada. A US version will be available soon.

Gotcha is not merely another phone number lookup using the white pages. Rather, it combines the deep web search capabilities of the CloserLook™ Search Engine with complex intelligence about the moving habits of people.

With as little input as a last name and a Province or the complete name and last known address record, Gotcha will perform as many as 6 levels of searches and return with current phone numbers from the best sources in North America. Click link to see a sample Gotcha! Report. http://www.closerlooksearch.com/indsearch/samplereport.asp?Product=Gotcha

This state-of-the-art search application is expected to find wide use in the credit and collection industry where Gotcha! will eliminate hours of manual efforts with a few mouse clicks. The tool has a number of features designed to make the service both powerful and user friendly. It can even be used to find a long lost friend, a former neighbor or schoolmate.

“Gotcha! is the first of a series of new deep web search applications that will be released in 2005” says CloserLook founder and President, Sumithra Jagannath. “We have been gratified by the response generated in the credit and collection industry. Professionals have been quick to recognize the strength and the potential of this new tool.”

CloserLook Search Services Inc, formerly GOA Technologies, is a leading provider of search services for key business information not accessible through traditional web search engines. Based in Montreal, the company specializes in invisible web search applications for b2b and consumer markets.

Opinions mixed on bankruptcy reform

By Kevin Rademacher / Staff Writer

May 13, 2005 - Weeks after President Bush signed into law a sweeping bankruptcy reform package, local attorneys and consumer advocates remain unsure what ramifications the new rules will bring.

"It's really complicated," said Joe Laxague, a senior associate with the law firm McDonald Carano Wilson LLP. "The summary is something like 30 pages. It's hard to tell what type of end effect it's going to have."

Gail Burks, chief executive of Nevada Fair Housing Center Inc., also indicated that the final verdict is still out, but she was certain that the result will be more difficulties for consumers.

She said the complexities of the bill -- such as a means test to determine the ability to repay debt and mandated credit counseling -- will make the process of unraveling financial woes more costly.

"People who would otherwise do so can no longer help themselves," Burks said.

The American Bar Association has criticized the new bankruptcy package -- billed as the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 -- for requiring the debtor's attorney to certify the accuracy of filings.

The Bar argues that existing regulations already require all attorneys in any practice area to ensure that pleadings "are supported by the facts." Holding bankruptcy attorneys personally liable and subject to harsher penalties will make legal representation unaffordable and diminish the number of pro bono work done in the area, the Bar argued.

The Bar Association indicated that it will attempt to turn back some of the provisions of the new bill during the 180 days prior to the new rules going into effect.

Meanwhile, the American Bankers Association is hailing the new bankruptcy rules as needed reform.

"The bankruptcy reform bill creates a more objective, needs-based bankruptcy test that will be used to determine whether debtors can afford to repay some or all of their debts," said a statement from the bankers association. "This change will result in more bankruptcy filers who are capable of repaying a significant portion of their debts (doing) so under Chapter 13 of the bankruptcy code."

The new law will make it more difficult for filers to declare Chapter 7, which uses only available assets not exempted under bankruptcy rules to resolve existing debt.

The new law also cuts the amount of last-minute debt that a consumer can pile up before filing for bankruptcy. The current law allows the elimination of $1,000 in charges or cash advances made within 60 days of filing. The new law will reduce that amount to $500 within 90 days for credit card charges and $750 in cash advances made within 70 days, per line of credit.

The new law also limits the amount of equity in a home that can be protected under homestead exemptions for people moving to states with preferential protection -- like Florida's unlimited protection laws -- within 38 months of the filing. The new law would require the home be treated under either the previous state's homestead laws or the federal exemption of $125,000. Nevada's homestead protection is $200,000.

Las Vegas bankruptcy attorney Frank Sorrentino said the claims of abusive bankruptcies touted by bankers and credit card companies that had pushed for reform for years were overstated.

"I really think that was exaggerated," he said. "That's a very small percentage of it. This is not something that people take lightly."

Still the bankers pointed out that the number of U.S. bankruptcy filings in 2004 reached 1.6 million and followed a record year in 2003 of 1.7 million. The group said that, under the current system, high-income filers walk away from as much as $4 billion in debt annually. "Some of which they can afford to repay," the bankers association said in a statement.

Still, Burks said, a variety of conditions -- including tougher bankruptcy rules -- are coming together to make life harder for consumers.

"I think it's a particularly bad time," she said. "And it's not just hard for Nevada."

She cited the recent move of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to preempt state laws governing national financial institutions which could give rise to predatory lending practices, a separate OCC move to raise minimum credit card payments, rising interest rates and higher housing costs, particularly in Nevada.

Sorrentino agreed.

"It really does come at a tough time," he said, predicting a rush of bankruptcy filings in August as the 180-day implementation period reaches its final months.

"From August on, we will probably be going like gangbusters," he said.

Once the new rules are in place, Sorrentino said the effect will largely be dictated by the courts.

"A lot is going to be determined by how the local judges and courts implement the rules," he said, adding that the latitude judges and trustees used to have will be reduced.

"It takes a lot of the discretion out of the judges' hands," Sorrentino explained. "While they may have a little bit, it's not near the discretion that they have now."

Kevin Rademacher covers utilities and finance for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-4069 or by e-mail at kevinr@lasvegassun.com.