Bankruptcy filings by consumers increased 9 percent last month. The rise was even more pronounced for Chapter 13 bankruptcies.
American consumers filed 137,698 bankruptcies during July, jumping from 126,270 filings in June, the American Bankruptcy Institute reported today. Consumer bankruptcies numbered 126,434 in July 2009.
The trade group — whose 12,600 members include lenders, lawyers and judges, and other bankruptcy professionals — said 28 percent of July’s consumer filings were Chapter 13. That works out to around 38,600 filings.
June filings under Chapter 13 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code came in around 34,100.
ABI’s figures were based on National Bankruptcy Research Center data.
From Jan. 1 to June 30, around 907,815 consumer bankruptcy’s have been filed.
Full-year consumer filings are on pace to exceed 1.6 million.
