U.S. bankruptcy filings were 38 percent higher last month than in July 2006 and are 50 percent higher for all of 2007 than they were a year ago, according to data complied by the private research company Jupiter eSource LLC.
Almost 307,000 bankruptcies were filed in the first seven months of this year, the Oklahoma City company said Friday, citing U.S. Bankruptcy Court records obtained online.
Business reorganizations accounted for 3,400 filings, a 20 percent rise from the same period in 2006 for corporate Chapter 11 cases. Individual bankruptcies accounted for most of the rest.
The 50 percent growth this year is partly a result of a low rate of filings in early 2006 under a new, more restrictive law.
Bankruptcies first rose as individuals rushed to beat an October 2005 deadline, then dropped. They rose steadily in 2006.
If this year’s pace continues, new bankruptcies in 2007 will total almost 790,000, 34 percent more than last year’s 590,400.
In the two weeks before the new law took effect, 630,000 Americans went to bankruptcy court, bringing the total filings in 2005 to a record 2.1 million.
