NEW YORK — Consumer bankruptcy filings plunged in the first quarter to their lowest level in 20 years, as a tough new law enacted in October made it harder to erase debts, fresh data show.

However, since shortly after the law went into effect, filing rates have been steadily increasing.

In Utah, total bankruptcy filings for the first three months of 2006 fell by 79 percent compared with filings during the same period of 2005, according to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Utah.

There were 329 Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings in Utah in March and 142 Chapter 13 filings for a total of 471, according to the bankruptcy court.

In line with broader trends, Utah's March 2006 bankruptcy totals — though markedly lower than the 2,034 filings during the same month a year ago — do show a continued upward trajectory since the start of the year. In January, there were 233 filings, followed by 311 filings in February.

Nationally, the quarter's filings fell 73 percent to 102,949, compared with 381,743 in the year-ago period, according to data released Tuesday by Lundquist Consulting Inc., a financial research outfit based in Burlingame, Calif.

That means, on an annualized basis, one in every 261 households filed bankruptcy in the quarter, as opposed to one in every 73 households a year ago.

The new law, bringing the most sweeping overhaul of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in a generation, took effect on Oct. 17. Personal bankruptcy filings jumped 50 percent in September in anticipation.

In Utah, there were 2,208 filings in September 2005, followed by a whopping 5,680 filings the following month, as filers rushed to beat the law change. In November 2005, there were 158 filings, and the total number of filings in the state has increased month-by-month since that time.

Lundquist reported Wednesday that all regions in the United States U.S. showed a significant decline in filings for the quarter. The Mountain region led the way, with first quarter filings at -81.2 percent, while the Southeast saw its first quarter filings at -68.2 percent. Among individual states, Georgia showed the most filings by volume at 7,755, followed by Michigan's 6,189 and Ohio's 5,565.

Chapter 7 filings, where debts can be wiped out entirely, except under certain circumstances, were 80 percent lower in the first quarter, according to the Lundquist report. Meanwhile, Chapter 13 filings, which require consumers to repay a part of their debts, are 53.6 percent lower than the year-ago period.

Filing rates have increased fourfold since November, about two weeks after the law took effect, Lundquist Consulting founder Chris Lundquist said in a prepared statement. In November, filings nationwide totaled 500 a day. In March, Lundquist said, they totaled more than 2,000 a day. That compares with 7,000 filings a day in March 2005.

Lundquist cautioned that it is too early to measure the new law's long-term effects.

The data also show the filing trend is moving back toward historic rates, as the number of Chapter 13 filings decreased from nearly 60 percent in November to less than 40 percent in March and is still on the decline.

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Contributing: The Associated Press; Jenifer K. Nii