Total Filings Decrease in 2011

According to data from Epiq Systems, total bankruptcy filings decreased by 12 percent in 2011 over 2010. Filings totaled 1,379,113 over the previous year’s total of 1,468,938. Total commercial filings fell 19 percent. Samuel J. Gerdano, Executive Director of the American Bankruptcy Institute credited the decline in filings to “the retrenchment in consumer spending associated with a down U.S. economy.”