Some states have more Chapter 13s than others. The highest number are in the Southeast. For instance, in Georgia, 62 percent of the household bankruptcies are filed under Chapter 13. In Utah, it's 38 percent. In Alaska, which has one of the lowest bankruptcy rates in the nation, it's 10 percent.

"In the Southeast, it's sort of where you see the strongest pressure for Chapter 13 bankruptcy," Lefgren said. "Once you get out of the Southeast states, Utah is pretty much at the top of the rest of the states."

Research in the 1990s found that bankruptcy courts "develop practices and norms of which types of households file which type of bankruptcy," Lefgren said.

For instance, in some courts, "people file under Chapter 13 because it's important that people repay their debts. That's not coming from the clients, but from the bankruptcy judges and the bankruptcy trustees," which are the lawyers that represent the creditors.

Also, it has been documented that when lawyers representing debtors attempt to file a Chapter 7 in a court friendly to Chapter 13s, "the bankruptcy judge can make life a little bit difficult for the lawyers," Lefgren said.

Generally, households that are in bankruptcy rely on their lawyers to steer them through the court system, and are unaware of legal procedures to help themselves.

"We saw this one unfortunate situation," Lefgren said of a Utah case. "This single mother with children, she filed for bankruptcy six times."

The woman originally filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, but accumulated new debt and filed for Chapter 13. The debt was $12,000. "She was a single mom with two or three kids, only making seven bucks an hour," Lefgren said. On a low income, the woman couldn't make the repayments arranged in her Chapter 13 bankruptcy and kept refiling and refiling.

"I don't know the circumstances under which she borrowed the money," he said. "But she can't crawl out of this relatively small whole."

Demographics also contribute to bankruptcy filings. "Filing is highest when you have a lot of people in ages of 25 to 29." Lefgren said.

Utah has a large young adult population, many with families.

"These newly formed families are some of the households at the highest risk. Utah probably has a few more of those than other places."

Middle- to low-income households — those earning $30,000 to $60,000 — also have a higher bankruptcy rate.

"If you look at who files for bankruptcy, it tends to be lower-income households and households that have lost their jobs. So there's financial strain. They're more likely to experience medical shock."

As a result of their research, the BYU authors warn policymakers about programs in which debtors are forced to repay their creditors in unreasonable circumstances.

"When you have a policy that says, 'OK, we're really going to be tough on debtors,' you can try to make people pay, but if they lack the capacity to do it, it's very hard to make them do so," he said. "If you garnishee people's wages, you're going to force them into bankruptcy."

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