New law blamed for rise in '05 Utah bankruptcies

A rush to beat a new bankruptcy law in 2005 pushed Utah bankruptcy filings for the year to 21,784, a 6 percent increase over 2004's filings and the third-highest number of filings in a single year for the state, according to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Utah.

At midyear 2005, bankruptcy filings in Utah were down 3 percent. But fears over the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, which went into effect Oct. 17, motivated thousands of Utahns to file.

In October, 5,680 Utahns filed for bankruptcy, roughly four times more than the number of filers on a monthly basis earlier in the year.

Kendall Oliphant, an economist with Thredgold Economic Associates in Salt Lake City, said the spike in bankruptcy filings is an anomaly.

"The main cause for the spike was the change in bankruptcy law," Oliphant said. "The incentive was greater to file before than after. It took all the people that were considering filing in the coming months and had them file in a 30-day period."

After the law went into effect, just 158 people filed in November. Another 182 filings were made in December, according to the court.

Ralph Mabey, a Salt Lake bankruptcy attorney with Mabey & Murray LC, said he believes filings will continue to drop throughout 2006, mainly because of the high number of 2005 filings, a stricter filing standard under the new law and the state's strong economy.

But Mabey cautions that in the long run filings could increase.

"The other side of the coin is there was a negative savings rate in 2005," Mabey said. "Consumer debt is at an all-time high, and Utah families continue to be larger than nationally. Utah homes continue to be larger. These factors may combine to revive the filing rate at some point in the future."

Nationally, significant increases in consumer bankruptcy filings occurred in every region, according to data released Wednesday by Lundquist Consulting Inc., a financial research outfit based in Burlingame, Calif. It tallied 2,043,535 new filings last year, up 31.6 percent from 1,552,967 in 2004 — meaning that one in every 53 U.S. households filed bankruptcy petitions, according to the company.

Filings in Ohio jumped 51.7 percent in 2005 to 135,142, making it the second-highest state in volume, the data showed. California was the highest, with 164,856, a 35.9 percent increase.

"The filing rate is not tied strictly to the strength of the economy," Mabey said. "It seems to be tied to other factors such as debt. In a heated economy, people tend not to look over their shoulders, and they may incur debt in a more haphazard way."

Utah's bankruptcies peaked in 2002, when 22,052 filings were made. In 2003 and 2004, filings dropped to 21,917 and 20,629, respectively.

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Contributing: The Associated Press

E-mail: danderton@desnews.com