Bankruptcy Update April 2009

Here at Shenwick & Associates, we were pretty busy last month. And we're not the only ones in the bankruptcy field with more business. According to a New York Times article earlier this month (which we previously posted here on our blog), March was the busiest month for bankruptcy filings since the enactment of BAPCPA (the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005) in October 2005.

There were 158,000 bankruptcy filings in March, or 6,900 per day, up 35% from February and up 19% from March 2009. Despite BAPCPA's goal of reducing Chapter 7 liquidation cases, Chapter 7 filings as a percentage of all bankruptcies have increased to about 73 percent in 2009 from about 62 percent in 2006-07. Last month, 75% of bankruptcy filings were Chapter 7 cases.

There were 1,473,675 bankruptcy filings in 2009, up 32% over 2008. Business filings increased 40% in 2009 to 60,387–the highest level since 1993.

Whether you're a creditor looking for defense against a fraudulent conveyance or preferential transfer adversary proceeding or a debtor seeking a simple personal Chapter 7 liquidation or a complex Chapter 11 or 13 reorganization, for all of your bankruptcy and creditor and debtor questions, please contact Jim Shenwick.