The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts reports a record year for bankruptcy filings:
Dec 15, 2008 — Bankruptcy cases filed in federal courts totaled 1,042,993 for the 12-month period ending September 30, 2008, up more than 30 percent when compared to the 801,269 filings in Fiscal Year 2007, according to statistics released today by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The September 2008 filings are the highest of any 12-month period since the 2006 implementation of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, when there were 1,112,542 filings in the 12-month period ending September 30, 2006.
The federal Judiciary’s fiscal year is the 12-month period ending September 30. The bankruptcies reported today are for October 1, 2007 through September 30, 2008.
The largest increases were seen in Chapter 11 filings, typically done by businesses, and in Chapter 7 liquidation cases:
In FY 2008, filings rose for all bankruptcy Chapters except for Chapter 12 of the Bankruptcy Code.
- Chapter 7 filings in FY 2008 totaled 679,982, up 40 percent from the 484,162, Chapter 7 filings in FY 2007.
- Chapter 11 filings rose 49 percent, increasing from 5,888 in FY 2007 to 8,799 in FY 2008.
- Chapter 13 filings rose 14 percent, from 310,802 in FY 2007 to 353,828 in FY 2008.
- Chapter 12 is designed to meet the needs of financially distressed family farmers. In FY 2008, Chapter 12 filings totaled 332, down 8 percent from the 361 Chapter 12 filings in FY 2007.
We can expect that those numbers will continue to increase as the recession goes on.
