People filing bankruptcy in Michigan has increased significantly. During the first two quarters of 2010 nearly 37,456 people filed bankruptcy in Michigan. Bankruptcy reform prompted several people to file before the laws changed in 2006. However, the law still allows several people to file regardless of the changes. You can ask any Detroit bankruptcy attorney and they will tell you they have more business than they can handle. Abiworld.org provides charts that showed bankruptcies in Michigan of some 7,989 citizens filing for bankruptcy protection in 2006. During the second quarter of 2010 18,372 people have filed bankruptcy in Michigan during the first two quarters; over 19 thousand filed in the first quarter of 2010. Unfortunately in the first two quarters of 2010 37,456 Michigan’s residents have had to file for bankruptcy. If it is not obvious, these statistics prove Michigan’s high unemployment along coupled with the economic downturn is hurting people and forcing them to do what most people try to avoid by filing bankruptcy. Assuming Abi’s data is correct that is a 38.9% increase since 2006 when comparing quarter 1 & quarter 2 between 2010 and 2006. Comparing the first two quarters of 2009 where 35,800 people filed bankruptcy which ended up being a 1% increase comparing the same quarter from the previous year. In the state of Michigan we had 10,619 people filing a chapter 13 bankruptcy for the in 2009 quarter.
People living in Detroit and Wayne County
According to census data the population estimate for Detroit in 2006 was 871,121 while the population estimate for the state of Michigan was 10,095643. Although the numbers are not 2010 we can see that 8.6% of the population of Michigan lives in or near Detroit. Using more accurate numbers for the county in which Detroit is based. In Wayne County we can see according to the US census that in 2009 19.3% of Michigan Citizens live near or around Detroit and 4.5% of these people filed bankruptcy. In 2009 The Eastern District had 39,390 individuals filing bankruptcy, the Western district had 11,633 individuals filing chapter 7 bankruptcy and chapter 13 bankruptcy. I am sure it is no coincidence that almost 30% or more specifically 29.5% of individual filings took place in the Detroit area where unemployment is unofficially around 20% for people that have given up on looking for work.
Bankruptcy lawyers in Detroit are busy
The lawyers are so busy they don’t know what to do and are turning away clients just like the housing boom where people could take a contractors test and hire a few workers and start their own construction company with a little determination, attorneys are now starting to turn to serving people that need bankruptcy lawyers even thought they really don’t have that much experience practicing bankruptcy. They only need to hire legal clerks that know how to fill out the paperwork and they briefly council you and do a means test to see what chapter you qualify for based on the results of the means test. If your bankruptcy attorney does not have years of experience in practicing bankruptcy law and your case is complicated you better find a new bankruptcy lawyer even if you have to wait to file.
