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Shortly after the passage of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Act in October of 2005, bankruptcy filings dropped to record lows. The main reason for this drop was that debtors did not know how the specifics of the new law would affect their situation. Over time, as people became more comfortable with those specifics, they began to file cases again. As of the early part of 2009, bankruptcy filings have been on the rise since 2005. The new law did have a early effect on bankruptcy filings when nationwide filings dropped from 1.4 million between June 2005 and June 2006 to 751,056 between June 2006 and June 2007. However between June 2007 and June 2008, nationwide filings went up 2176,775, to a nationwide total of 967,831 - a 29% increase.
In the State of Georgia, the numbers have also gone up and the total filings for the Northern District of Georgia in 2008 was 39,214. The number of filings for 2009 for the Northern District of Georgia (all divisions) is 24,359 through June 2009. As you can surmise, the number of filings are increasing. The increase can be attributed to one, the stigma of the new law has apparently passed and people have become more comfortable with the requirements of the law and two, the economic condition of our country. Additionally, with the election of Barack Obama as our 44th President, there continues to be talk about revisiting BAPCPA 2005 to see if certain aspects of the law need to be addressed. Unfortunately, nothing has been introduced or passed as of the end of July 2009.
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