On my first day as a creditors’ rights/bankruptcy lawyer, Trustee Elliott Levin told me that the most important quality for a lawyer practicing in this area of the law is compassion.
Regardless of whether you represent creditors or debtors, it is important to understand not just the financial elements of the situation but also the events that led someone to need a financial workout or to file for bankruptcy. It is important to have compassion and empathy for the emotional crisis that is often taking place alongside the financial crisis.
The Ag industry has been distressed for years. Many farmers have gone through one or more financial workouts and are still feeling enormous financial pressures. What is often over looked is the emotional turmoil this situation is causing in faming families.
Recent celebrity suicides have shed a light on the rising rate of suicide in the United States. Farming has long been a profession with a high suicide rate. In the last few years, however, the suicide rate among American farmers has increased dramatically. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the suicide rate in the field of farming, fishing and forestry, a/k/a “Triple-F,” is 84.5 per 100,000 people -- more than five times that of the United States’ population as a whole and third among the occupations studied. [1]
There is some dispute over whether farmers should be classified as “managers” or in the group of “Triple-F” workers.[2] However, the “Triple-F” suicide rate reported by the CDC follows in line with a larger crisis happening globally: an Australian farmer dies by suicide every four days; in the United Kingdom, one farmer a week dies by suicide; in France, one farmer dies by suicide every two days; in India, more than 270,000 farmers have died by suicide since 1995.[3]
There are many reasons for this troubling trend. America’s farmers are struggling economically and have been for years. This year, the average farm income is projected to be 35% below its 2013 level.[4] Farmers also often tend to work alone, without a support network and in rural areas where access to mental health services can be difficult. Farmer’s livelihoods are also tied to elements beyond their control-- elements of nature, commodity prices that are well below the cost of production, and rising interest rates.
As a lawyer who works with farmers who are at risk of losing or who have lost their livelihood it often took them 20 or more years to build or, in some cases, farmers at risk of losing a farm that has been in their family for over a century, I try never to lose sight of the fact that lawyers used to be more commonly called “counselors-at-law.”[5] It is my profession to counsel in the law, but I also believe that is part of my professional responsibility to have compassion and to show empathy for the emotional crisis people are facing when they work with me as well as an understanding of the legal and financial issues presented. For more information on the services we offer, contact an Omaha lawyer, Sioux City lawyer, or Sioux Falls lawyer today!
If you have a client who is struggling, help is available: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline - 1-800-273-8255.
[1] CDC, “Suicide Rated by Occupational Group,’ https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6525a1.htm (last visited June 29, 2018); https://newfoodeconomy.org/update-cdc-retracts-finding-that-farmers-have-the-highest-suicide-rate-in-the-country/ (last visited June 29, 2018);
[2] http://agnetwest.com/cdc-retracts-farmer-suicide-rate-findings/ (last visited June 29, 2018);
[3] The Guardian, “Why are America’s farmers killing themselves in record numbers?” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/06/why-are-americas-farmers-killing-themselves-in-record-numbers (last visited June 29, 2018).
[4] United States Dept. of Agriculture, Economic Research Services, “Farm-level average net cash income,” https://data.ers.usda.gov/reports.aspx?ID=17841 (last visited June 29, 2018).
[5] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/counselor-at-law (last visited June 29, 2018).
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