Bankruptcy filings have increased by 14 percent in 2010

It is official that the total number of bankruptcy filings in the 12-month period ending on September 30, 2010 has increased by almost 14% from that of the previous year.

According to the administrative officials at the U.S. courts, the number of non-business bankruptcy filings between the 12-month period October 1, 2009 and September 30, 2010 has increased from 1,344,095 to 1,538,033. This figure is up by 14.4%.

However, the number of business bankruptcy filings (Chapter 11 bankruptcy) has dropped by 0.7% from that of the last year. Business bankruptcy is normally filed by business owners to repay their outstanding balances through the reorganization of debts.

It is reported that in 2009, the total number of business bankruptcy filings was 58,721. But in 2010, only 58,322 business bankruptcy cases were filed in the federal courts. This figure indicates that the condition of the industry has become slightly better in this year, which is welcome news.

Let us have a close look at the bankruptcy filings under all chapters in 2010:

Finally, the number of bankruptcy filings in the final quarter of 2010 reached 412,380. This figure is up by 6.2 percent from the 388,485 bankruptcy cases filed in the last quarter of the fiscal year 2009.