ALEXANDRIA, Va. — U.S. consumer bankruptcy filings were up double digits for the first six months of 2010.

According to the American Bankruptcy Institute, filings came in at 770,117, up 14 percent over 675,351 filed during the same period last year.

Based on the data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center, consumer filings for the first half represent the highest total since 2005 when the new law went into place.

Despite the high total, ABI indicated that monthly consumer filings have been steadily decreasing since March.

"Years of rising consumer debt and low savings rates, combined with the housing and unemployment crises, are causing bankruptcy levels not seen since the 2005 amendments to the Bankruptcy Code," pointed out Samuel Gerdano, ABI executive director.

"We expect that there will be more than 1.6 million new bankruptcy filings by year end," he added.

June consumer bankruptcy filings came in at 126,270, which was 8.5 percent higher than 116,365 last year during the same month.

"While the June total represented an increase over the previous year, it was a 7.8-percent decrease from the May 2010 total of 136,142 consumer filings. Chapter 13 filings constituted 27 percent of all consumer cases in June, a slight increase from May," officials reported.