More Americans filed for bankruptcy protection in March than during any month since the federal personal bankruptcy law was tightened in October 2005, a new report says, a result of high unemployment and the housing crash.

Federal courts reported over 158,000 bankruptcy filings in March, or 6,900 a day, a rise of 35 percent from February, according to a report to be released on Friday by Automated Access to Court Electronic Records, a data collection company known as Aacer. Filings were up 19 percent over March 2009.

More than 117,000 bankruptcies were filed in the U.S. in February, 13 percent more than a year earlier and the second-most on a daily basis since bankruptcy law changed in October 2005.

Bankruptcy filings began climbing last year, as the housing crisis and rising consumer debt began to take their toll.

Crystal Erickson and her sons Mun Luak, 1, and Ramkel Luak, 3, in Portland, Me. She and her fiancé face foreclosure on their home and are considering bankruptcy.

Filings plummeted in 2006 after reaching unusual heights in 2005, when consumers rushed to declare bankruptcy before a tough new law took effect that October. Total filings of both consumer and business bankruptcies last year were still far below what they were in 2004, the last “normal” year.