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.

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.