Chapter 11 filings by U.S. businesses totaled 1,214 in April, with a year to date total of 4,933, according to newly released data from Oklahoma-based Automated Access to Court Electronic Records (AACER).
If the current pace remains steady throughout the year, Chapter 11 filings will end the year down slightly from 2009.
Total Chapter 11 filings were far outpaced by Chapter 7 liquidations, according the data, which was cited in an article by Bloomberg News. Including Chapter 7 filings, total business bankruptcies were more than 29,000 year-to-date through April, the news service reported.
According to AACER, U.S. business bankruptcies rose 38% in 2009, to a record since bankruptcy laws were changed in 2005. The record for bankruptcy filings was 2.1 million that year.
There were 89,402 bankruptcy filings by businesses last year, compared with 64,584 the previous year, AACER reported.
"It's a sizable increase over 2008," said AACER President Mike Bickford.
