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While the overall economy is in the dumper the number of bankruptcy filings has not exploded . . . yet. Nationally, consumer bankruptcy filings increased 34% in January, compared to the same period a year ago. According to the American Bankruptcy Institute and the National Bankruptcy Research, consumer filings totaled 88,773 in January. Chapter 13 filings constituted 32.8% of all consumer cases in January, a slight increase from December. According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts bankruptcy filings jumped 34% in the third quarter compared to the year ago period, and increased 5% sequentially. According to CardData (www.carddata.com) there were 290,000 filings in the fourth quarter. In a recent ABI poll 65% of respondents predicted that bankruptcies in 2009 would increase by at least 35% over the nearly 1.1 million cases filed in 2008. Fifty-three percent of respondents predicted that filings would increase by 35% or more while 12% thought that filings would increase by about 35%.
