Karen Redmond, 202-502-2600

December 5, 2006 — Bankruptcy cases filed in federal courts tumbled in fiscal year 2006. According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, filings for FY 2006, the 12-month period ending September 30, 2006, fell 37.6 percent to 1,112,542, from total filings of 1,782,643 in FY 2005. The FY 2006 figures include most of the filings that were part of the surge in filings prompted by the October 17, 2005, implementation date of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005; filings began to rise in the late FY 2005 and peaked as over 600,000 petitions were filed in the first 16 days of October 2005.

Filings for the 3-month period ending September 30, 2006, fell to 171,146. The same 3-month time period in FY 2005 saw filings totaling 542,002.

The federal Judiciary's fiscal year is the 12-month period ending September 30. The bankruptcies reported are for October 1, 2005 through September 30, 2006.

Business and Non-Business Filings

Business bankruptcies for FY 2006 fell 20.1 percent to 27,333 from the 34,222 business bankruptcies filed in FY 2005. Non-business or personal bankruptcies fell 37.9 percent in FY 2006, from 1,748,421 in FY 2005 to 1,085,209 in FY 2006.

Filings Under Chapters 7, 11, 12 and 13

In FY 2006, filings under Chapters 7, 11, and 13 of the Bankruptcy Code fell, while filings under Chapters 12 rose slightly. The largest decline was in Chapter 7 filings.

• Bankruptcy Filings by Chapter 12-Month Periods Ending September 30, 2002-2006
  Chapter
  Year	7	11	12	13
  2006	833,147	6,003	376	272,937
  2005	1,346,201	6,637	364	429,316
  2004	1,153,865	10,368	238	454,412
  2003	1,177,292	10,144	698	473,763
  2002	1,084,336	11,669	322	451,258

  Chapter 7 filings in FY 2006 totaled 833,147, down 38.1 percent from 1,346,201 in FY 2005.
• Chapter 11 filings dropped 9.6 percent, falling from 6,637 in FY 2005 to 6,003 in FY 2006.
• Chapter 13 filings declined 36.4 percent, falling from 429,316 in FY 2005 to 272,937 in FY 2006.
• Chapter 12 is designed to meet the needs of financially distressed family farmers. In FY 2006, Chapter 12 filings totaled 376, up 3.3 percent from the 364 cases filed in FY 2005.

Fourth Quarter Filings

The 3-month period ending September 30, 2006, was the Judiciary's final quarter of fiscal year 2006. Bankruptcy filings in the fourth quarter totaled 171,146, down 68.4 percent from the 542,002 bankruptcy cases filed in the final quarter of FY 2005. For a breakdown of filings by all chapters for the quarter, see Table F-2, 3-month period.

For more on bankruptcy and its chapters, visit the Judiciary's website 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.

Quarterly Filings*

* Because of on-going corrections to the bankruptcy database, the quarterly data may not total to the most recent annual figures.

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