U.S. Bankruptcy filings surged last month, as the housing market turmoil that has recently spooked Wall Street also played out in federal bankruptcy court. July filings are up 38% over filings from the same month in 2006.

Total bankruptcy cases for the first seven months of this year are already 50% higher than they were this time last year, according to data from Jupiter eSources LLC, which operates Automated Access to Court Electronic Records, a bankruptcy research firm.

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.

U.S. residents filed for bankruptcy last month at a daily pace lower than the fourth quarter of 2007 and at the slowest monthly rate since August, while company filings jumped in January.

More than 70,000 personal bankruptcy petitions were filed last month, according to data compiled by Jupiter eSources LLC. At that rate, 2008 would witness only a 2 percent increase over the 827,000 petitions filed in 2007.

While I was busy with last week's Debtor World conference, the April 2008 bankruptcy filing figures became available from AACER. If I wanted to be sensational, I could compare the latest figures to the 2007 figures and tout how filings are up over 37% from the previous year. Or, I could compare the April 2008 total of 93,096 to the March figure and note filings climbed 3% in one month. Although both of those calculations are technically correct, they also are misleading.

It is popular to assume the increases in the bankruptcy filing rate are tied to the home mortgage foreclosure crisis here in the United States. Is that really the case? I've checked the data, and it appears that it is.