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| | | Generally, articles containing bankruptcy statistics discuss annual volumes of activity. In this article we look at what occurs in a typical business day in the bankruptcy courts across the United States. There are 202 staffed locations in the bankruptcy courts nationwide. Excluding weekends and federal holidays, the bankruptcy courts are open for business about 250 days per year.
TOTAL CASE FILINGS: In an average working day, 6,310 new cases are filed. (Ten years ago the daily volume of filings was under 4,000, and 20 years ago fewer than 1,500 cases were filed per day.) About one-third of these cases are joint filings by married couples, so at least 8,000 individuals declare bankruptcy in a given day. Of the new cases, about 600 are filed in California and six are filed in Alaska. About 60 cases per day are filed outside the United States. Most of these are filed in Puerto Rico, but cases are occasionally filed in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Marianas.
CHAPTER 7: In a typical working day 4,440 chapter 7 cases are filed and assigned to approximately 1,200 panel trustees (of course, not every trustee receives new cases each working day). About 90 of these are business cases and the rest are consumer cases. The consumer debtors will list about $200 million in general unsecured debt, of which about $80 million is credit card debt. The vast majority of these cases (96% - 97%) are closed as no asset cases, generally about four to five months after filing. However, about 160 asset cases are closed each day by chapter 7 trustees, and these cases result each day in over $5 million collected and distributed by chapter 7 trustees.
Among consumer chapter 7 debtors who file on a typical day, there are about: -- 133 who owe at least $75,000 in credit card debt;
-- 191 others who owe between $50,000 and $75,000 in credit card debt;
-- 32 with over $50,000 in medical debt;
-- 18 who owe at least $500,000 in unsecured debt;
-- 500 who are either retired or disabled;
-- 200 who are age 70 or older.
*statistics compiled from the United States Department of Justice.
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