Filings for Bankruptcy Up 18% in February
Americans filed for bankruptcy in growing numbers in February, buckling under the combined weight of rising energy prices, a weakening housing market and sky-high personal debts.
An average of 3,960 bankruptcy petitions were filed per day nationwide last month, up 18 percent from January and up 28 percent from a year earlier, according to Automated Access to Court Electronic Records, a bankruptcy data and management company.
February was the busiest month for filings since Congress overhauled the bankruptcy law in 2005. Bankruptcy experts said the rise was particularly worrisome because those changes made filing for bankruptcy more complicated and expensive.
“This number of bankruptcies may be under-representative of the true financial distress consumers are feeling because of the steps Congress has taken,” said Jack Williams, a scholar in residence at the American Bankruptcy Institute and a professor at Georgia State University.
The latest figures show the financial pain is spreading from states like California and Florida, which exemplified the housing boom and subsequent bust, to those along the Eastern Seaboard like Maryland, Virginia and Delaware, which were among the 10 states with the largest percentage increase in filings in January and February. “You are seeing a good-size uptick everywhere,” said Mike Bickford, president of Automated Access.
Bankruptcy experts caution, however, that data from just one or two months can be misleading.
“The monthly bankruptcy filing rate has a lot of cyclicality,” Robert M. Lawless, a professor of law at the University of Illinois College of Law, wrote on Tuesday on the widely read bankruptcy blog, Creditslips.org. Some experts, for example, say bankruptcies often seem to rise in February as debts from the holiday season come due. Even so, the trend is definitely upward, Mr. Lawless wrote. States as disparate as Kentucky and Rhode Island joined the top 10 list, and the absolute number of filings rose significantly.
Mr. Williams expects the number of bankruptcies nationwide to reach 1.2 million to 1.4 million this year, up from 826,732 in 2007; Mr. Lawless expects more than one million. (In 2004, the last year with a normalized set of data, 1,597,462 petitions were filed, according to Automated Access.)
The states with the most significant increase in bankruptcy filings during the first two months of 2008 were California, with a 33 percent increase; Maryland, up 29 percent; and Florida, with a 26 percent rise, the data shows. Filings fell in 16 states, including Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, South Dakota, Kansas, and Wyoming.
Proponents of the bankruptcy law argued in 2005 that some consumers were abusing the law, using Chapter 7, or liquidation, to shed credit card debt. The bill, supported by both Republicans and Democrats, “increased the expense for everyone and reduced the protections for everyone,” said Mr. Williams.
Related Articles
State aid abbreviations for the unemployed
The rate of unemployment benefits for laid-off workers, money in a few months in Missouri and a half-dozen other states - the latest proof that the slumping economy is the disastrous state of Finance.Pléthore applications from unemployed workers, unemployment insurance funds in Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota and
Identity Theft or captured Be careful
For many examples Kieran Glynn shows how easy it is for thieves, for your personal information and use it to mislead you or other people. However, through simple precautionary measures, it shows how to reduce or prevent this new threat to your privacy.Have you ever thrown a document that is
Reflections on a life ended too soon
In connection with the death of my daughter, I would like to thank the community for the county Boundary your calm and warm support, and you have strong memories of a young woman, I was beginning to know. At the time, she was born on 3 September 1976, Anna Marie has
Throttlebottoms' Revenge
If the Vice-Presidency of the U. S. is often a gateway to polite political obscurity, even more hapless Throttlebottoms are lieutenant governors of most States. Last week, therefore, their colleagues watched with interest and envy as two lieutenant governors took advantage of their chiefs' absences to make unusual news: When Massachusetts'
Hello world!
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
A financial burden for abortion
In American popular culture, the face of abortion is often an adolescent anxiety, nervousness choice to terminate an unplanned pregnancy. The figures speak for a story much more complex in the financial burden can play a central role. Half of the approximately 1.2 million U.S. women, abortions per year, 25 years
OK legislator extension of the average tax
House-Senate negotiators late Wednesday authorized the extension of three layers popular means Republicans and tax cuts, frightened, for accounts to President Bush, provides the rapid adoption in both houses of Congress. The Conference approved the group bill forcing the objections of Democrats, said of tax cuts must be paid by tax
Ling Confederation pay contributions for the Bush campaign
Thus, while every human being in South Dakota, gave $ 1000 or more for re-election of President Bush is campaigning Tom Everist's Pocket PC. This leads to Everist, a wealthy businessman from Sioux Falls, is on the road leading to Bush's elite Rangers - people have at least 200000 dollars for
The online fraudsters always a step ahead
Mark Nichols, a line of gift shop and considers itself experienced Internet. But like many other surf sites, it has deceived by an e-mail fraud.A message, it was from eBay Inc. asked Nichols to submit his password and other personal information on a website. The e-mail came shortly after Nichols'
Bord the employment contract with the tribes
Tribal contract Regional State and Government on the contract Tetuwan Oceti Sakowin Council conference a wide range of issues, including state governments, as the approach of tribal issues, as the tribes approach agreements with other Governments and individuals, how can tribal culture. Senator Ron Volesky permanent member of Rock Sioux Tribe,