Personal Bankruptcies Climb
Through First Quarter

Creditors hoping for a stable bankruptcy environment in 2003 are disappointed. Statistics compiled from courthouse records by the National Bankruptcy Research Center ( a product of Lundquist Consulting, Inc., Burlingame, CA, accessible at www.NBKRC.com) reveal that through the first 13 weeks of 2003 (i.e., through March 29), personal bankruptcy filings are up 8.9% from the same period one year earlier. Significantly, the pace of filings is ahead of even the sharp escalation experienced in the first quarter of 2001. At that time there was much speculation that the rapid tracking of proposed bankruptcy reform legislation through Congress had triggered an acceleration of filings to take advantage of the old rules. Observers of the bankruptcy reform process know all too well that the reform legislation was never enacted. This year's increase seems far more likely to be attributable to underlying economic circumstances.

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