U.S. bankruptcies rose 34.4% in January

February 8th, 2009, 2:00 pm · 4 Comments · posted by Jan Norman, small-business columnist

Consumer bankruptcy filings nationwide continued to rise in January, up 34.4% from a year earlier, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, based on data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center.

In January, 88,773 Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcies were filed, a 4.5% increase from December. Two-thirds were Chapter 7 liquidations rather than individual workouts.

Consumers account for 97% of bankruptcies and businesses, 3%. In California consumers were 95% of the bankruptcies and businesses 5% in 2007, latest numbers available. However, a significant number of the individual filings are by business owners.

“U.S. households are under great financial stress today,” said ABI Executive Director Samuel J. Gerdano. “We expect more than 1.4 million new cases to be filed in 2009.”

In a January Quick Poll of ABI members, 65% predicted that bankruptcies in 2009 will increase at least 35% over the 1.1 million filed in 2008.

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Netteligent says:

February 8, 2009 at 6:13 pm

Depression coming. The worst has yet to come. More foreclosure in 2009.

Eric says:

February 8, 2009 at 9:50 pm

Would anyone have a favorable perspective of George W. 5 years or 10 years from now??? Anyone??? He’s partly to blame for this, for not stopping the economic collapse from happening and for giving out hundreds of billions of $$$ to executives (who’s also partly to blame), who have run their companies into the ground resulting in massive layoffs, while these fat cats continue to live high on the hog with that bailout money. That’s OUR tax money right there!!!

The unfortunate, pathetic thing is that we’re gonna continue to fund for George W’s pension for the rest of his f***** privileged life, while the average Americans continue to suffer the aftermath of his massive incompetence.

taryntee says:

February 9, 2009 at 5:00 am

The state of California and county of Orange will be joining those ranks very soon.

O.C. bankruptcies in January jumped 57.8% - Jan Norman on Small Business - OCRegister.com says:

March 4, 2009 at 7:56 am

[...] The increase is slightly lower than the 60.4% hike for the entire U.S. Bankruptcy Court Central District covering Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. But both far exceed the 34% jump in bankruptcies nationwide. [...]

Orange County Register