ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Continuing a trend seen throughout the year, the American Bankruptcy Institute discovered the amount August consumer bankruptcy filings dipped both year-over-year and month-over-month.

Relying on data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center, ABI determined August consumer bankruptcies decreased 11 percent nationwide from the same month a year ago.

The data showed that the overall consumer filing total for August declined to 113,432, down from the 127,028 consumer filings recorded in August 2010. ABI mentioned each month of this year has recorded fewer bankruptcies than last year.

Institute officials pointed out the August total also represented a less than a 1-percent decrease from the July consumer bankruptcy amount of 113,470 filings.

ABI also noted the percentage of Chapter 13 filings for August was 30 percent, a 1-percent increase from July.

"Consumer bankruptcies continue to decline over the past year as households deleverage and consumer credit remains tight," explained ABI executive director Samuel Gerdano.

"As a result, total consumer filings will be lower in 2011 than the 1.5 million consumer cases in 2010," Gerdano projected.