U.S. Courts: Bankruptcy Filings Surge in Calendar Year 2005

Bankruptcy filings in the federal courts skyrocketed a record 30 percent in calendar year 2005, according to data released Friday by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

Bankruptcies filed in the twelve-month period ending December 31, 2005, totaled 2,078,415, up from the 1,597,462 petitions filed in the 12-month period ending December 31, 2004. This was the largest number of bankruptcy petitions ever filed in any 12-month period in the history of the federal courts. Bankruptcy filings for the three-month period, October 1-December 31, 2005 were also at an historic high for any quarter. The increase in CY 2005 occurred largely in response to the passage of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA), as many debtors filed petitions before the law’s general effective date of October 17, 2005.

Business and Non-Business Filings
The majority of bankruptcy filings are non-business filings and in CY 2005, they totaled 2,039,214, a 30 percent increase in non-business filings from the 1,563,145 bankruptcy petitions filed in CY 2004. Business filings, totaling 39,201 in CY 2005, rose 14 percent from the 34,317 business filings in CY 2004.

First Quarter Filings for FY 2006
The last three months of CY 2005 were the first quarter of the Judiciary’s 2006 fiscal year. The number of bankruptcies filed during the first quarter of fiscal year 2006 (October 1-December 31, 2005) was 667,431, up 80 percent from the 371,668 filings in the first quarter of FY 2005 (October 1-December 31, 2004).

Filings by Chapter
Of the total number of bankruptcy filings for the 12-month period ending December 31, 2005, there were 1,659,017 Chapter 7 filings, up 46 percent from the 1,137,958 Chapter 7 filings in the same period in 2004. The next largest group of filings was Chapter 13 filings at 412,130, down 8 percent from the 449,129 filings in CY 2004. Chapter 11 filings fell 33 percent to 6,800 from the 10,132 filings in CY 2004. In CY 2005, Chapter 12 filings rose to 380 from the 108 filings reported in CY 2004.

For more on bankruptcy, visit the Judiciary’s website at www.uscourts.gov/bankruptcycourts/bankruptcybasics.html or go to www.fjc.gov/federal/courts.nsf. Local bankruptcy court rules can be found at www.uscourts.gov/rules/bk-localrules.html. Historic data on bankruptcy filings is available on the Judiciary’s website under Bankruptcy Statistics. Additional bankruptcy statistics, including bankruptcies by county, can be found on the Judiciary’s PACER system.