AO: Bankruptcy Filings Up 28 Percent

Bankruptcy filings surged nationwide by more than a quarter in the 12-month period ending in June, according to statistics released today by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The 967,831 cases filed represented a 28.9 percent increase over the same period ending in June of last year.

Non-business filings, which made up more than 96 percent of the new cases, rose by 28.4 percent. The majority of these were filed by individuals. The spike in business filings was even more pronounced: the 23,889 filings amounted to a 42.6 percent increase over the last period.

Click here for the AO’s breakdown of the data (links to the data themselves can also be found here).

The AO notes that the number of filings this quarter (the three-month period that ended in June) is the highest the federal judiciary has seen since the first quarter of 2006. That spike was largely attributed to the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, and filings leveled by March 2006.