Epiq [1], an Atlanta-based provider of intelligence to the legal services industry, has released its October 2021 bankruptcy filing statistics from its AACER [2] subsidiary which found that filings rose by 1.8% last month representing 31,471 filings of all types, up from the 30,920 seen is September.
Breaking the data down, Chapter 13 filings have been on the rise since May. This number is up 33% since that time when 8,079 were filed—that number rose to 10,764 filings in October.
The bulk of Chapter 13 filings came from the state of Georgia, which saw 1,087 new filings, followed by Alabama (833 new filings); Florida (755); Tennessee (744); and Illinois (596).
Chapter 7 filings are trending downward though—18,874 new filings were started in October compared to the 19,942 new filings seen in September.
“Although October had one less business day than September, October 2021 filings were up 1.8% month-over-month. However, new filings remain significantly lower than the comparable pre-COVID number of 67,878 for all chapter new filings in October 2019,” said Chris Kruse, Senior Vice President of Epiq AACER.
In addition, total commercial Chapter 11 filings in October increased by 21.1% to 293 new filings, up from the 242 filings seen in September. Breaking that number down further, Chapter 11 Subchapter V filings were up 16.7% with 84 new filings, up from the 72 seen in September.