After falling year-over-year for five consecutive years, the number of bankruptcy filings bumped up nationwide by 6 percent from the previous year in December 2016, according to December 2016 AACER bankruptcy data [1] reported by Epiq Systems [2].
Bankruptcy filings totaled 56,394 in December, which was a decrease from November’s total of 59,300, but an increase from December 2015’s total of 53,844 (an increase of approximately 2,500). For the complete year of 2016, there were 771,894 bankruptcy filings nationwide (or 64,324 per month), down from 2015’s full year total of 819,431 (about 68,286 per month).
The average number of filings per day in December 2016 was 2,685 over 21 days, a decline of close to 300 from November’s daily average of 2,966 over 20 days. November experienced 188 fewer filings than in the month prior. Bankruptcy filings averaged 3,075 for full year of 2016 over a period of 251 filing days.
December’s total of 56,394 bankruptcy filings was less than half of the peak total of 114,820 for the month of December, recorded in 2010.
Click HERE to View the Entire Report [1]
The state with the most cumulative filings for all of 2016 was California with 71,955. As was the trend all year, Illinois was second in year-to-date filings with 52,674. The next three states with the most cumulative filings were Georgia (46,669) Florida (43,850), and Ohio (36,188).
Tennessee and Alabama continued to rank first and second among states in bankruptcy filings per capita for December with 5.57 and 5.48 for every 10,000 people, respectively. Those numbers were slight declines from November’s numbers of 5.65 and 5.52. The national average of filings per capita in December 2016 decreased slightly over-the-month from 2.51 down to 2.48, though it has increased nearly 50 basis points since January 2016’s average of 2.02 percent.
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.
