Bankruptcies fall to lowest level in five years

About 1.5 million personal and business bankruptcies were filed in the year that ended June 30, a 9.3 percent drop from the previous year, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The level of filings was the lowest in five years. Personal filings fell to 1.45 million from 1.6 million. Business filings fell by 844 to 31,562. The new bankruptcy code became effective Oct. 17, 2005. Full-year 2006 filings are likely to be the fewest since 1986. Filings for 2006 through June 30 totaled 272,604, compared with 868,482 in the first half of 2005, a 69 percent plunge. Chapter 13 filings represented 41.15 percent of all consumer filings in the first half of 2006, up from 24.15 percent during the same period of 2005. Conversely, the percentage of consumer Chapter 7 filings fell to 58.76 percent of the total consumer filings for the period, from 78.81 percent in the first half of 2005.