Bankruptcy filings by individuals and business in March totaled almost 146,000, 4 percent fewer on a daily basis than in March. Filings in April still were the second most since bankruptcy law was tightened in late 2005, according to data compiled from court records by Automated Access to Court Electronic Records.
Chapter 11 filings mostly by larger companies intending to reorganize or liquidate exceeded 1,200 in April, said AACER, a service of Oklahoma City-based Jupiter ESources LLC. Annualized, Chapter 11 filings this year would be about 14,800, or 3 percent fewer than 2009's total of 15,200.
Including businesses filing to liquidate in Chapter 7, commercial filings in April were about 29,250, or 2 percent below commercial filings in 2009 on an annualized basis.
The states with the largest increases in filings this year compared with 2009 are Hawaii, California, Virginia and Vermont. The states with the most filings per capita are Nevada, Tennessee, Georgia and Michigan.
Including individuals, total U.S. bankruptcy filings in 2009 were 1.44 million, a 32 percent from 2008.
Bankruptcy filings continue trailing the record 2.1 million in 2005, when 630,000 Americans sought protection from creditors in the two weeks before revisions to federal bankruptcy laws that October made it more difficult for individuals to erase debts.
