Bankruptcy filings rose 56% last year in Utah

(Deseret News) The number of individuals and businesses filing for bankruptcy in Utah jumped 56 percent in 2009 — the fifth-biggest rise among states.

Figures released Wednesday by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court show 14,481 filings for 2009, compared with 9,256 in 2008.

Statistics indicate 9,283 Chapter 7 filings, in which assets are liquidated to pay debts. That is up from 5,413 filings in 2008. Meanwhile, Chapter 13 filings, resulting in debt adjustment, totaled 5,103, compared with 3,766 filings the year before.

While the yearly bankruptcy figures are up significantly, some monthly numbers from last year were especially striking, according to court clerk David Sime.

"There were a few months this (past) summer where the year-over-year monthly comparison was up 75 percent," he told the Deseret News.

Nationally, an Associated Press report Monday said that 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.

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.

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