Bankruptcy Filings Are Down

Total bankruptcy filings nationwide for July 2012, decreased 12 percent compared to the previous year, according to data provided by Epiq Systems, Inc.  July bankruptcy filings totaled 97,073, down from the 110,173 filings registered in July 2011. Total commercial filings for July 2012 were 4,513, representing a 22 percent decrease from the 5,800 filings during the […]

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Chapter 9 – Bankruptcy of a Municipality

Several well-known cities across the U.S., including Birmingham, have elected or discussed bankruptcy as an option. However, municipalities seeking to avail themselves federal bankruptcy relief discover that they are not in the same position as corporate debtors. Instead, municipalities can only resort to the uncommonly-used chapter of the Code–chapter 9. While chapter 9 has been infrequently used in the past, the recent financial crisis and prolonging local governmental […]

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