Following a surge in bankruptcy filings during March, filings fell last month. Three southern states have the worst bankruptcy rates.
U.S. Bnakruptcy courts were hit with 100,702 new bankruptcy filings in April. Filings included commerical and non-commercial bankruptcies.
Activity slowed from a month earlier, when 102,653 bankruptcies were filed. However, March filings had been up 25 percent from February.
Filings also retreated from the same month last year, when 108,996 filings were made.
The statistics were reported by the 13,000-member American Bankruptcy Institute. The numbers were produced with data provided by Epiq Systems Inc.
Consumer filings accounted for 96,344 of last month’s total bankruptcy filings. Non-commercial activity slowed from the previous month’s 98,558 consumer bankruptcies.
The consumer portion of total April 2012 filings was 103,798.
On both commercial and non-commercial bankruptcies, the average per-capita rate went from 3.40 filings per 1,000 in population for the first quarter to 3.52 in April.
The per-capita rate was 6.76 in Tennessee — higher than any other state. Georgia followed, then Alabama, Illinois and Nevada.
