Big year for bankruptcies: up 32% in U.S., up 45% in Washington state

RALEIGH, N.C. — U.S. consumers and businesses are filing for bankruptcy at a pace that made 2009 the seventh-worst year on record, with more than 1.4 million petitions submitted, an Associated Press tally showed Monday.

The AP gathered data from the nation's 90 bankruptcy districts and found 1.43 million filings, an increase of 32 percent from 2008. There were 116,000 recorded bankruptcies in December, up 22 percent from the same month a year before.

While experts believe some of the increase is due to a natural recovery as consumers and attorneys become accustomed to a recent overhaul of bankruptcy laws, the numbers indicate clear correlations to recession-weary regions.

Arizona saw the fastest increase, a jump of 77 percent from the year before, followed by Wyoming (60 percent), Nevada (59 percent) and California (58 percent).

While every state saw a rise in bankruptcies, Alaska (up nearly 12 percent), Nebraska (12 percent) and North Dakota (14 percent) performed best.

Washington had a 45 percent increase. (In the Western Washington district, filings rose 49 percent to 24,255 for 2009. Chapter 7 bankruptcies climbed 62 percent to 18,523, while Chapter 11 filings were up 68 percent to 206 and Chapter 13 cases increased 17 percent to 5,501.)

Emile Harmon, who owns a law firm in Tempe, Ariz., said the firm has doubled its staff to handle the surge in bankruptcy filings. The lawyers have been steadily shifting away from their other areas of business, civil lawsuits and divorce cases.

"Bankruptcy is kind of swallowing the whole practice." Harmon said. "There's little time to do other stuff."

There's also no sign that things are slowing down. Harmon said bankruptcies have been coming in waves, first with those 18 months ago who had adjustable-rate mortgages, then with those who lost their jobs due to the housing downturn.

Now he's finding wealthy individuals and business owners who have finally succumbed to lower incomes and shrinking home values.

"A lot of the people we see were in a really good financial position two years ago," Harmon said. "People really look at you and say, 'I can't believe I'm here.' "

For three years, filings have been steadily rising back toward levels reached early in the decade before Congress overhauled the nation's bankruptcy laws.

The 2005 alterations made bankruptcy filings more cumbersome, a move that followed fears from lenders that some consumers were abusing the system to wipe away debts.

Bankruptcies surged to slightly more than 2 million in 2005 as consumers rushed to file before the new law took effect, but then plummeted to 600,000 in 2006. They've been climbing ever since and 2009 became the seventh-highest year on record, behind only the years 1998 and 2001-2005.

The information on bankruptcies in Western Washington was compiled by The Seattle Times.