Epiq, a global technology-enabled services provider, released its January 2022 bankruptcy filing statistics from its Epiq Bankruptcy AACER Platform. Overall, January new filings were 26,194 across all chapters, down 6.4% from December 2021, which had 27,980 new filings. Total commercial filings across all chapters were 1,492, down 11.2% over December 2021, which had 1,681 new filings.
Overall, the total number of open bankruptcy cases in the U.S. fell year-over-year by more than 16.5%, down to 724,070 in January compared to 866,811 open cases at the end of January 2021.
Chapter 7 individual bankruptcies had 14,304 new filings in January, down 11.9% over December 2021, which had 16,235 new filings. Year-over-year, January saw new Chapter 7 individual bankruptcy filings down 35.4% over January 2021, which had 22,127 new filings. In January 2022, the top five states with new Chapter 7 filings were California (1,595), Florida (1,166), Illinois (819), Michigan (798) and Ohio (788).
Chapter 13 individual bankruptcies had 10,336 new filings in January, up 3.4% over December 2021, which had 9,996. This is the first month in the last four months where new Chapter 13 filings grew month-over-month. Year-over-year, January saw new Chapter 13 filings were up 13.2% over January 2021, which had 9,127 new filings. In January 2022, the U.S. Southeast region continued to lead new Chapter 13 filings with Georgia (1,065), Alabama (811), Florida (732) and Tennessee (685) leading the way as the largest states with filing activity.
Chapter 11 commercial filings, including Sub Chapter V, had a total of 222 new filings in January, a sharp decrease of 53.7% over December which had 310. Of these, 77 were Sub Chapter V, up 11.6% to 69 the prior month. Of note, in December 2021, Chapter 11 filings had a single case, Nordic Aviation Capital, that accounted for 112 individual jointly administered cases, explaining the sharp uptick in the December filings number.
“January 2022 new filings continue to be well below pre-pandemic levels,” Chris Kruse, senior vice president of Epiq Bankruptcy Technology, said. “We are closely watching the Chapter 13 individual filings as this month reversed the prior three-month trend with a modest uptick in activity.”
