ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The American Bankruptcy Institute revealed several double-digit increases regarding several time frame comparisons when looking at latest bankruptcy totals.

Beginning with first-quarter results, ABI indicated U.S. bankruptcy cases jumped 17.5 percent over the same period in 2009. That rate is according to data released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

Specifically, officials said total filings during the first quarter of 2010 reached 388,148. In the same quarter of 2009, the amount was 330,394.

While not quite as great, ABI mentioned the amount from the first quarter of 2010 also was a 4.3-percent increase from filings recorded in the closing quarter of 2009. During that span, 372,203 bankruptcies were filed.

Much of the filings posted during the first quarter of this year were consumer based, and again, it marked a sharp rise from the year-ago amount.

The institute indicated consumer filings increased 18.2 percent to 373,541 during the quarter, up from the 2009 first-quarter total of 316,158. The first-quarter amount also was 4.6 percent higher than the total recorded in the fourth quarter of 2009, which was 357,183 non-business filings.

Court data also showed that the percentage of consumers filing for Chapter 13 protection fell slightly during the first quarter. The percentage dipped from 29.2 percent during the first quarter of 2009 to 27.1 percent over the same period in 2010.

However, the number of consumers filing for Chapter 7 protection increased to 72.8 percent during the first three months of 2010, according to ABI. Officials stressed that's the largest percentage of consumer Chapter 7 filers since the implementation of BAPCPA in 2005.

The chapter analysis of non-business filings for first quarter of 2010 broke down to be 272,048 Chapter 7 cases, 440 Chapter 11 cases and 101,051 Chapter 13 filings.

Turning to a look at business filings, officials said the 2010 first-quarter total came in at 14,607, representing a 2-percent increase over the year-ago time span when 14,319 cases were filed. Noteworthy, though, is that the 2010 first-quarter amount did show a 2.8-percent decrease from the 15,020 business filings recorded in the last quarter of 2009.

The chapter analysis of business filings for first quarter of 2010 broke down to be 10,074 Chapter 7 cases, 3,293 Chapter 11 filings, 163 Chapter 12 cases and 1,043 Chapter 13 filings.

ABI also shared data that revealed trends for the 12-month period that wrapped up March 31. In all comparisons, the increases computed to be 12 percent or higher.

All told, 1,531,997 bankruptcy cases were filed. That figure marked a 27.4-percent jump from the previous 12-month period which totaled 1,202,395 filings.

Non-business cases represented the majority of the 12-month period total, 1,470,849 filings. This sum climbed by nearly the same percentage as the overall year-over-year increase. It was up 27.5 percent from the 1,153,318 non-business filings that were recorded for the period ending March 31 of last year.

Business filings rose by 24.6 percent to 61,148, up from the 49,077 cases.

Looking at the 12-month data by bankruptcy chapter, filings under Chapter 7 increased by 34.2 percent to 1,100,032 from 819,304. Chapter 13 filings grew by a much smaller percentage (12.2 percent), but the total amount still rose from 370,836 to 415,966.

Chapter 11 filings moved up by 29.5 percent from 11,774 to 15,251. While constituting the smallest overall amount, Chapter 12 filings spiked by the largest percentage when comparing 12-month periods. The percentage increase was 64.8 percent from 367 Chapter 12 filings to 605.

Officials also revealed the state with the highest per capita filing rate for the past 12 months was Nevada. The rest of the top 10 in order were Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Michigan, Ohio, California, Illinois and Kentucky.

When discussing districts with the highest percentage increase in total filings for the past 12 months, ABI said the district of Arizona led the way at 69.2 percent.

The rest of the top districts officials noted were the district of the Virgin Islands (58.8 percent), central district of California (57.8 percent), district of Wyoming (53.3 percent) and northern district of California (50.5 percent).

"As Congress continues to consider financial regulatory reforms to address the causes of the economic downturn, consumers and business are still turning to bankruptcy to find relief from financial distress," explained Samuel Gerdano, ABI's executive director.

"We expect filings to surge past 1.5 million cases by year-end," Gerdano added.