Twelve-Month Bankruptcy Filings Rose 30 Percent through March

Location: New York
Author: RiskCenter Staff
Date: Wednesday, June 4, 2008
 

Bankruptcy filings in the federal courts for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2008, exceeded 900,000, according to statistics released Tuesday by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

The 901,927 bankruptcy cases filed represent a 30 percent increase over the 695,575 cases filed during the 12 months ended March 31, 2007.

After an initial drop in bankruptcy filings following the October 17, 2005, implementation date of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA), filings have risen gradually. Calendar year 2007 filings saw a 38 percent increase.

The majority of bankruptcy filings are filings involving predominantly consumer debts, which totaled 871,186 over the 12 months ended March 31, up 29 percent from 673,615 filings in the period ended March 31, 2007.

Business bankruptcies rose 40 percent to 30,741, from 21,960 filings in the 12 months ended March 31, 2007.

For the 12-month period ending March 31, 2008, filings rose for all bankruptcy chapters, except for Chapter 12.

  • Chapter 7 filings rose 36 percent to 560,015, compared to the 413,294 Chapter 7 filings in the 12-month period ending March 31, 2007.
  • Chapter 13 filings rose 21 percent to 334,551 from 276,649 a year ago.
  • Chapter 11 filings rose 34 percent to 6,971 from 5,199 a year ago.
  • Chapter 12 filings fell eight percent to 343 from 372 filings for the 12 months ended March 2007, the court system administration reported.

The 12-month total exceeding 900,000 filings is consistent with the expectation by the American Bankruptcy Institute that 2008 will see filings exceed 1 million.

Source: http://www.creditandcollectionsworld.com/

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