U.S. Consumer Bankruptcy Filings Reach Highest Level Since 2005
According to the American Bankruptcy Institute, consumer bankruptcy filings in the first six months of 2010 rose 14 percent from the same period one year ago, and are now the highest on record since the bankruptcy laws were revised in 2005 when Congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act.
From January 1 through June 20, 2010, consumer bankruptcy filings in the U.S. stood at a total of 770,117. For the month of June, bankruptcy filings totaled 126,270, up 8.5 percent from June of 2009. A small silver lining: the total number of filings for June was down 7.8 percent from last month.
The ABI website provided quarterly bankruptcy filing statistics by state only through the first quarter of 2010; Florida bankruptcy filings stood at 26,404 for the first quarter of 2010, up 22 percent from the same period one year ago, when filings totaled 20,701. Florida is second only to California for the highest number of combined consumer and business bankruptcy filings.
In a press announcement on the latest bankruptcy filing statistics, ABI Executive Director Samuel J. Gerdano said that his organization anticipates there will be over 1.6 million new bankruptcy filings by the end of 2010.
Greg Gilbert
Keith Maynard
