Bankruptcies Accelerate Through End of 2001

As of the end of the 51st week of 2001 (December 22) 1,436,813 personal bankruptcies had been filed in the U.S. since the beginning of the year, eclipsing the previous annual record of 1,378,000 personal filings set in 1998. The 2001 year-to-date total through week 51 was 20.5 percent above the same period in 2000, according to Visa's Bankruptcy Notification Service. The nearby chart shows no year-end slackening in court activity, unlike the previous two years. For the week ending December 22, 2001 there were 31,331 petitions filed.

An official count of filings from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts lags somewhat behind the commercial reporting services. In early December the Office of the Courts released data on the filing count for the 12 months ending September 30, 2001. The table below summarizes filing data by state and bankruptcy judicial district. Of the 91 districts that make up the 50 states, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, only 2 districts experienced declines in petition volume during the 12-month period, compared to a year earlier. For the 12 month period ending in September, personal bankruptcies were up only 14.1 percent compare to the 12 month period ending one year earlier (September 30, 2000). Nevertheless, the total set a new all-time record for a 12 month period. From the Visa statistics cited above we already know that this record will be broken when the Courts report filings for the 12-month period ending December 31, 2001. A press release from the Office of the Courts noted that bankruptcy courts have had to handle this heavier workload despite the fact that no new judgeships have been added to the federal bench since 1992. Cases per judgeship have risen 48 percent since 1992.

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