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Bankruptcy filings nose-dived in the first three months of this year, falling 73% compared to one-year ago and down six-fold sequentially. The number of filings in the first quarter is the lowest number of quarterly filings in the last 20 years. According to CA-based Lundquist Consulting 1Q/06 Chapter 7 consumer filings are 80% lower 1Q/05. Due to new bankruptcy laws the number of Chapter 13 filings in first quarter represented 45.7% of the total as opposed to historic rates of 29%. Lundquist notes that on an annualized basis, 1 in every 261 households filed bankruptcy in the first quarter of this year as opposed to 1 in every 73 households in the first quarter of last year. According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, consumer and business bankruptcy filings hit a record 667,431 petitions in the fourth quarter.
