Some small businesses have failed, with their owners simply walking away, since Congress let expire a provision that had made them eligible for Subchapter V protection, according to bankruptcy professionals.

The alternatives — a standard Chapter 11 or a Chapter 7 liquidation — are either too expensive or overly risky for many small companies, lawyers said.

Faced with those options, some owners give up and abandon their companies, while others wind up deeper in debt as they try to trudge on with problematic ultra-high-interest financing like merchant cash advances, according to Daniel Gielchinsky, a partner at Florida-based DGIM Law PLLC.