Epiq, a global technology-enabled services provider to the legal services industry and corporations, released February 2022 bankruptcy filing statistics from its new Epiq Bankruptcy Analytics platform. Overall, February new filings were 26,985 across all chapters, up 3.2% from January 2022, which had 26,155 new filings. Total commercial filings across all chapters were 1,420, down 5.4% over January 2022, which had 1,501 new filings. Overall, the total number of open bankruptcy cases in the U.S. fell month-over-month by 1.1%, down to 714,866 at the end of February compared to 723,725 open cases at the end of January 2022.
Chapter 7 individual bankruptcies had 15,196 new filings in February, up 1.1% over January 2022, which had 14,295 new filings. So far in 2022, Chapter 7 individual bankruptcy filings are down 29.9% with 29,491 over the first two months in 2021, which had 42,079 new filings. In February 2022, the top five states with new Chapter 7 filings were California (1,744), Florida (1,248), Illinois (887), Michigan (811) and Ohio (793).
Chapter 13 individual bankruptcies had 10,306 new filings in February, flat from January 2022, which had 10,345. In February 2022, the U.S. Southeast region continued to lead new Chapter 13 filings with Georgia (1,040), Alabama (791), Tennessee (712) and Florida (701) leading the way as the largest states with filing activity.
Chapter 11 commercial filings, including Sub Chapter V, had a total of 203 new filings in February, down 10.8% over January 2022 which had 225. Of these, 93 were Sub Chapter V, up 16.5% from 80 the prior month. These small business filings are a key metric to watch as we exit the pandemic and government aid ceases.
“Although February 2022 new bankruptcy filings continue to be well below pre-pandemic levels, chapter 7s are up and chapter 13 individual filings remained flat month-over-month, even with February having three less days than January,” Chris Kruse, senior vice president of Epiq Bankruptcy Technology, said. “We are watching these trends closely.”