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 rose 14 percent from January, according to data compiled from court records by Automated Access to Court Electronic Records. October was the only month in almost five years with more new bankruptcies.
Commercial filings rose 3 percent from February 2009 and were unchanged from January. Filings in Chapter 11, where mostly larger companies reorganize or liquidate, were up 1 percent from a year earlier and down 18 percent from January.
Consumer bankruptcies jumped 14 percent from a year earlier to more than 111,000, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute. Nevada, Georgia and Tennessee led in per-capita filings.
Total U.S. bankruptcy filings climbed to 1.44 million last year, a 32 percent increase from 2008, said AACER, a service of Oklahoma City-based Jupiter ESources LLC. Commercial bankruptcies rose 38 percent, including a 50 percent surge in Chapter 11 filings by U.S. businesses.
Bankruptcy filings reached a 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.
