Tuesday, January 6, 2009

2008 bankruptcy numbers bleak

By Marshanna Hester

There's more evidence today the economy is in dire straits.

More than a million Americans filed for bankruptcy last year.

That's a nearly 33 percent jump from 2007, when more than 800,000 consumers filed.

The numbers are still short of the more than 2 million who filed for bankruptcy in 2005.

That year, experts say consumers rushed to file before a new law took effect that made it harder to get Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.

In Kansas, there were nearly 9,000 bankruptcies last year.

Kansas' numbers are also down from 2005, when nearly 23,000 Kansans filed for bankruptcy.

Experts predict bankruptcies will increase this year as more people have problems with their credit cards and other debt.

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