Area bankruptcy filings have fallen in 28 of the last 31 months

11/7/2012

Filings in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Toledo fell 10 percent in October, continuing the two-year trend of decreasing cases in the 21-county northwest Ohio territory covered by the court.

Bankruptcy filings have now decreased eight consecutive months and have fallen in 28 of the last 31 months, according to figures from the Bankruptcy Clerk of Courts office.

There were 526 new cases filed in October, compared to 583 cases filed in the same month a year ago. For the year, 4,978 cases have been filed, a decrease of 16 percent compared to the same period a year ago.

So far there have been 451 Chapter 13 repayment cases filed in the first 10 months of 2012, a decrease of 27 percent from the same period a year ago.

Just seven Chapter 11 reorganization cases were filed through October, compared with 20 in the first 10 months of 2011.

Nationally, bankruptcy filings in October decreased 9 percent from the same month a year ago, according to data from the American Bankruptcy Institute. October filings totaled 101,278 cases, which compared with 111,533 cases filed in the same month in a year ago.

The October filings also marked a 16 percent increase from September, when 87,522 cases were filed nationally.

“Despite this uptick, total bankruptcy filings for the year remain on pace for about 1.2 million new cases, the lowest total since before the financial crisis in 2008,” said Samuel J. Gerdano, bankruptcy institute executive director.

“Sustained low interest rates and weak consumer spending by households deleveraging are helping to restrain bankruptcy filing rates.”

The average nationwide per capita bankruptcy-filing rate through the first 10 months of 2012 was 3.96 (total filings per 1,000 per population).