Chattanooga bankruptcy attorney Tom Ray filed a lawsuit today on behalf of Bernard Francis Schultz and Elizabeth Mary Sabatine naming U.S. Attorney General Roberto Gonzales and U.S. Trustee Richard Clippard as defendants.  The lawsuit requests a permanent injunction be issued to stop the enforcement of the new bankruptcy law.

Tom Ray said this lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the reformed U.S. bankruptcy law that went into effect October 2005.  Ray contends the "means test" is discriminatory since it is calculated based on median income levels which vary between the states.

The number of Delaware bankruptcy cases filed in the second quarter of this year increased 38% from the previous quarter. Consumers are getting the message that bankruptcy is still a course of action they can take to repair their financial situation.

Consumers have to qualify through a means test to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Delaware. If they don't qualify, they may still be eligible to file under Chapter 13. Either way, the Delaware bankruptcy courts will likely see even more bankruptcy filings in the last two quarters of the 2006.

Florida bankruptcy courts heard 73,622 cases from July 1, 2005 to June 2006. Only four other states had more bankruptcy cases than Florida. In the Middle District alone, attorneys filed more than 43,000 Florida bankruptcy cases.

The Southern District processed over 25,000 bankruptcy cases in the same period. The courts still have their hands full while consumers continue to see filing a Florida bankruptcy as a reasonable solution to their financial situation.

The Southern District of Georgia saw a dramatic decrease in Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the second quarter this year. However, the Northern and Middle Georgia bankruptcy districts reported large increases in the total number of bankruptcy filings for the same period.

Georgia bankruptcy courts in the middle district processed 191 more Chapter 13 bankruptcies from the first to the second quarters in 2006. The Northern district reported that attorneys brought 376 more Chapter 7 cases and 421 more Chapter 13 cases to the Georgia bankruptcy courts in the second quarter of this year.

A total 76,570 Illinois bankruptcy cases were filed from July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006. Even though the number of Illinois bankruptcy cases this period is nearly 7000 less than the previous twelve months, Illinois still ranks as the fourth highest state for the number of bankruptcies filed in the last twelve months.

California, New York, and Texas were the only three states to process more bankruptcy cases than Illinois in the same twelve month period.

The Colorado court system reported 31,120 bankruptcy cases were filed in the twelve months ending June 30 in 2006. In those twelve months, Colorado bankruptcy filings numbered 30,244.

Colorado bankruptcy continues to be a solution for many people with financial problems. If this trend continues, attorneys will process more than 32,000 Colorado bankruptcy filings over the next twelve months.

The number of cases filed in the Arkansas bankruptcy courts increased by 38% from the first quarter of 2006. In fact, both the Eastern District and the Western District of Arkansas experienced a 38 percent increase in bankruptcy cases filed.

With these types of case increases, the Arkansas bankruptcy courts may start to get busier. However, the increases are not significant enough to prevent consumers from finding an available Arkansas bankruptcy attorney.

Kentucky personal bankruptcy filings decreased by close to two-thirds for the first six months of 2006 compared to the same period in 2005. The Federal bankruptcy courts processed 5,231 Kentucky bankruptcy cases in January through June, in contrast to 15,449 last year.
Kentucky bankruptcy attorneys speculate the decline is due to the escalation in Kentucky bankruptcy filings that took place last October before the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 took effect.