Bankruptcy filings by companies and individuals continued their steady climb in September, setting records since bankruptcy laws were tightened three years ago. The increase was largest in states where housing prices fell most and foreclosures are rising fastest.

The number of businesses that sought to liquidate under Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection rose 7% last month, indicating that the U.S. financial crisis is putting more struggling companies out of business.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Recent high-dollar business bankruptcies in Oklahoma, such as Shepherd Mall and Boom Drilling, have been Chapter 11 reorganization cases, but more companies are opting for straight bankruptcy, records show.

The SemGroup LP case, which involves a Tulsa-based company, was filed in Delaware.

More Oklahoma businesses are filing Chapter 7 this year than over the past couple of years, and business bankruptcies in general are trending upward in the state, according to data from the American Bankruptcy Institute.

The U.S. bankruptcy filing rate climbed again in August, reaching a new post-2005 high of 4,476 filings per day. The year 2005 is significant because it was the year that the bankruptcy law changed making it more expensive and more time-consuming to file bankruptcy as well as making bankruptcy less effective once debtors got to bankruptcy court. Despite these changes, the bankruptcy rate has become staggeringly high, and we appear to have returned to an era where we will have well more than 1 million annual bankruptcy filings.

Slumping labor and real estate markets, high gas prices and a cost of living increase helped U.S. bankruptcy filings reach the highest daily rate in August since a 2005 law made it harder for Americans to shed debts.

The home states of Joseph Biden and Sarah Palin, the vice presidential candidates for the Democratic and Republican parties, recorded the largest increases from July to August. Filings in Delaware and Alaska were up 36 percent and 34 percent, respectively.