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AACER: Bankruptcy Filings Experience Rare Year-Over-Year Climb

Bankruptcy filings experienced a rare year-over-year increase in November 2015, rising by more than 3,000 from the previous November, according to November 2015 AACER bankruptcy data [1] reported by Epiq Systems [2].

In all, there were 65,511 bankruptcy filings in November 2015, compared with 62,438 during the previous November. It was the first year-over-year increase in nationwide bankruptcy filings for any one month in 2015 and the first year-over-year increase for any November since 2009 to 2010, when filings jumped from about 115,000 to their peak of approximately 118,000 over the year.

Despite the over-the-year climb in bankruptcy filings, November’s total of 65,511 represented a decline of about 4,700 from October, when 70,211 filings were reported. November averaged slightly more filings per day than October, however (3,448 compared to 3,344) in two fewer filing days (19 compared to 21). Had November included those extra two filing days and filings continued at the same pace they had all month, November’s total of filings would have exceeded that of October’s.

The 65,511 bankruptcy filings in November represented a dropoff of 45 percent from the November peak of 118,215, reached in November 2009.

The number of bankruptcy filings year-to-date for the first 11 months of 2015 is 765,382, an average of 69,580 per month and an average of 3,342 filings per day over 229 filing days.

Click HERE [3] to view the entire report

12-3 AACER graph [4]

California topped all states for cumulative year-to-date bankruptcy filings with 75,355 for the first 11 months (including 6,471in November, also tops among states for the month). Illinois was second with 52,261 filings year-to-date as of November 30, 3015, and Florida was a close third with 50,918. Georgia (45,991) and Ohio (34,582) were fourth and fifth, respectively for the most cumulative filings for the first 11 months of the year. The state with the fewest cumulative filings was Alaska with 417 after experiencing just 37 bankruptcy filings in November.

As they have every month in 2015, Tennessee and Alabama ranked first and second among states in filings per capita for November with 5.80 and 5.41 filings for every 10,000 people, respectively. Both were slight declines from the 5.86 and 5.45 totals reported for October. November’s national average in bankruptcy filings per capita (2.69) was virtually unchanged from October’s average. Tennessee and Alabama ranked sixth and 11th, respectively, for most cumulative filings in 2015 through the end November. Tennessee reported 33,452 filings for the first 11 months of 2015 while Alabama reported 23,345.

Epiq Systems is a leading global provider of technology-enabled solutions for electronic discovery, bankruptcy and class action administration. Top legal professionals depend on us for deep subject-matter expertise and years of firsthand experience working on many of the largest, most high-profile and complex client engagements. Epiq Systems, Inc. has locations in the United States, Europe and Asia.