Bankruptcy filings in the U.S. have almost topped 1 million this year, with one month to go.
Another 91,355 companies and individuals sought court protection from creditors in November, according to data compiled by Automated Access to Court Electronic Records, a service of Jupiter ESources LLC in Oklahoma City. A similar number in December would push the total for 2008 to around 1.1 million, up 33 percent from last year.
Daily filings climbed 2.6 percent last month from October, and ``exceeded 5,000 per day for the first time since the 2005 changes to the bankruptcy law,'' Mike Bickford, AACER's president, said in an e-mail. He expects a total of more than 1.1 million filings for the year.
Bankruptcy filings have increased as the economy slows and lenders tighten credit standards. This year's forecast total will still trail the record 2.1 million filings in 2005, when 630,000 Americans filed in the two weeks before revisions to federal bankruptcy laws that October made it more difficult for individuals to erase debts.
This year's increase has been led by companies. Through the first 11 months of 2008, almost 9,000 filed for reorganization or liquidation in Chapter 11, already 43 percent more than for all of 2007.
Including businesses that filed to liquidate in Chapter 7, commercial filings in the first 11 months have surpassed last year's total by 35 percent.
California is seeing the biggest increase, with bankruptcy filings up 81 percent this year from 2007. Arizona ranks second with a 78 percent gain and Delaware is third at 74 percent.
Per capita, the most filings are in Tennessee, followed by Nevada, Georgia and Alabama.
There were 590,500 filings in 2006 and 827,000 in 2007.
