Source: http://www.uscourts.gov/statistics-reports/bapcpa-report-2015
Timestamp: 2017-09-20 00:11:27
Document Index: 643302854

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 159', '§ 159', '§ 159', '§ 159', '§ 159', '§ 506', '§ 159', '§ 109']

BAPCPA Report - 2015 | United States Courts
BAPCPA Report - 2015
2015 Report of Statistics Required by the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005.
During calendar year 2015, nearly 800,000 bankruptcy petitions were filed by individuals with debts that are predominantly consumer in nature (“consumer cases”), 10 percent fewer than in 2014. Approximately 63 percent of the petitions, down from 66 percent in 2014, were filed under chapter 7, in which a debtor's assets are liquidated and the nonexempt proceeds distributed to creditors. About 37 percent, up from 34 percent in 2014, were filed under chapter 13, in which individuals who have regular income and debts below a statutory threshold make installment payments to creditors under court-confirmed plans. One-tenth of one percent of petitions filed by individuals with predominantly consumer debt were filed under chapter 11, which allows businesses and individuals to continue operating while they formulate plans to reorganize and repay their creditors.1
Approximately 933,000 consumer cases were closed during calendar year 2015. Approximately 62 percent of the closed consumer cases included in the data analyzed for this report were closed under chapter 7, about 38 percent under chapter 13, and less than 1 percent under chapter 11.
Consumer debtors seeking bankruptcy protection under chapters 7, 11, or 13 during 2015 reported holding total assets in the aggregate amount of $77 billion and total liabilities in the aggregate amount of $113 billion. The total assets reported by consumer debtors fell 12 percent below the comparable 2014 amount, and the total liabilities for the same set of cases fell 20 percent below the comparable data for 2014. (When considering the magnitude of these decreases, one should keep in mind that consumer filings in 2015 fell 10 percent over the previous year.)
The median average monthly income reported by all debtors was $2,636 (1 percent higher than in 2014), and the median average reported monthly expenses were $2,581 (1 percent lower than in 2014).2 From filing to closing, chapter 7 consumer cases terminated in 2015 had a mean time interval of 215 days and a median time interval of 115 days. A total of 151,950 reaffirmation agreements were reported as filed in 108,884 chapter 7 consumer cases terminated during 2015. In 38 percent of the chapter 13 cases filed during 2015, debtors reported that they had filed for bankruptcy protection during the previous eight years, 2 percent more than in 2014.
In accordance with BAPCPA, the bankruptcy statistics in this report are itemized by chapter of the Bankruptcy Code and report only data in consumer cases. The tables noted in the list below have been created for this report as specified in 28 U.S.C. § 159(c).
28 U.S.C. § 159(c)(3)(F)(ii) Chapter 13 Cases Closed by Dismissal or Plan Completion 6
28 U.S.C. § 159(c)(3)(H) Rule 9011 Sanctions Imposed Against Debtors’ Attorneys 9
The naming convention used for the tables in this report provides that the alphabetic character immediately following the table number indicates the chapter(s) of the Bankruptcy Code associated with the cases included in the table. "A" indicates cases under chapter 7 only; "B" indicates cases under chapter 11 only; "D" indicates cases under chapter 13 only; and "X" indicates cases under chapters 7, 11, and 13 combined. For example, Table 1D reports assets and liabilities for cases filed under chapter 13. 3
The U.S. bankruptcy courts send data to the AO when a case is filed, when certain motions are filed in the case, and when the case is terminated. The data are then compiled annually for the purpose of this report. Many BAPCPA tables, particularly those reporting data on debtors’ assets, liabilities, income, and expenses, rely on data provided by debtors when they submit required forms, schedules, motions, agreements, and other filings to the court. Most of these data, as specified in 28 U.S.C. § 159(c), are provided exclusively by the debtors and are not validated either by the courts or the AO.
Another limitation relates to the first column of data in each table, which presents total cases. Some tables include reopened and transferred cases in the totals, but others omit these cases. Reopened and transferred cases are excluded when the data would be duplicative. For example, totals for assets and liabilities at the original filing of a case are the same for each reopening of that case. Counting the cases twice (once at filing and once at reopening) would distort the data on reported assets, liabilities, income, and expenses. In all other instances in which they would not affect the results, these cases are included.
Transaction data refers to case-related events such as reaffirmation agreements, valuation orders, creditor misconduct, and attorney sanctions that occur during bankruptcy proceedings (see Tables 4, 5, 8, and 9). Such data are typically captured in the courts’ docketing activity.
Tables 1A, 1B, 1D, and 1X set forth the assets and liabilities reported by debtors in total and by category of assets and liabilities, as well as the total net scheduled debt reported by the debtors on Official Bankruptcy Form 106Sum—Summary of Your Assets and Liabilities and Certain Statistical Information (B 106 Summary).4 All tables that report assets and liabilities (1A, 1B, 1D, and 1X) present data on cases filed during the reporting period by individual debtors with primarily consumer debt. The data for these tables are provided exclusively by the debtors and cannot be validated by the courts. These data typically are provided by a debtor at the time of filing or within 14 days thereafter as required by Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 1007. They are not typically updated as the case proceeds. Data for reopened and transferred cases are excluded to prevent duplicate reporting.
Table 1X shows that individual debtors with primarily consumer debt seeking bankruptcy protection under chapters 7, 11, or 13 during 2015 reported holding total assets in the aggregate amount of $77 billion. Seventy-three percent of these assets were categorized as real property, and 27 percent as personal property. Apart from districts with fewer than 200 filings each (Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam), debtors in the Western District of Texas (TX-W) and the Northern District of California (CA-N) reported the highest average assets per completed petition at $219,000, and filers in the Western District of Tennessee (TN-W) reported the lowest average assets at $44,000.
Debtors reported total liabilities in the aggregate amount of $113 billion, with 58 percent of liabilities categorized as secured claims, 3 percent as unsecured priority claims, and 39 percent as unsecured non-priority claims. Overall, debtors categorized 92 percent of debts and obligations as dischargeable debt. Excluding districts with fewer than 200 filings each, debtors in the District of Hawaii reported the highest average liabilities per completed petition at $305,000, and filers in TN-W had the lowest average liabilities at $66,000.
Table 2X shows that 794,976 consumer cases were filed in 2015 under chapters 7, 11, and 13 across the nation and 733,263 debtors completed the forms needed to include their data in these tables.6 The median current monthly income7 of debtors who completed the relevant forms was $2,886, slightly more than the $2,882 median current monthly income reported in 2014. The median average monthly income8 was $2,636, a 1 percent increase from 2014, and the median average expenses9 were $2,581, 1 percent less than in 2014. CA-N had the highest median current monthly income with $3,883, and the District of Puerto Rico (PR) had the lowest median current monthly income with $1,669. Filers in CA-N had the highest median average monthly income with $3,421 and filers in PR had the lowest median average monthly income with $1,824. Filers in the District of Connecticut (CT) had the highest median average expenses with $3,574, and filers in TN-W had the lowest with $1,660.
Time Interval from Filing to Closing
In accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 159(c)(3)(D), Table 3 reports the mean time interval between filing and closing of consumer cases filed on or after October 17, 2006 under chapters 7, 11, and 13 and terminated during 2015. The median time interval also has been included to provide perspective on the mean value by reducing the effect of data outliers, although median values are calculated only when 10 or more cases are reported.10 Reopened cases are excluded from this table because most reopened cases are filed and closed relatively quickly to settle administrative matters and do not proceed in the same way as original filings.11 For transferred cases, the mean and median time intervals are calculated from the date the case is received at the new location to the closing of the case at that location.
During the 12-month period ending December 31, 2015, a total of 907,395 consumer cases opened on or after October 17, 2006 were terminated under chapters 7, 11, and 13, with a mean time interval from filing to closing of 583 days and a median time interval of 152 days. The higher mean closing time (relative to the median time) reflects particularly long-running cases. The mean is 10 percent higher than that for 2014, and the median is 9 percent greater than in 2014. As the breakdown by chapters below indicates, much of the growth was in chapter 11 and chapter 13 cases, for which longer closing times can indicate more cases receiving discharges and fewer receiving dismissals (see Table 6).
Of the 560,998 chapter 7 consumer cases filed on or after October 17, 2006 and terminated in 2015, the mean time interval from filing to closing was 215 days and the median time interval was 115 days. By comparison, the mean time interval in 2014 was slightly higher at 218 days and the median held steady at 115 days. The Middle District of Louisiana had the highest median of any district at 295 days, and the Southern District of Iowa had the lowest median at 98 days.
A total of 1,050 chapter 11 consumer cases filed on or after October 17, 2006 were closed in 70 districts during 2015. The mean time interval from filing to closing was 752 days (up from 677 days in 2014) and the median time interval was 625 days (up from 593 days in 2014). Only 23 districts had 10 or more chapter 11 cases closed in 2015. Of those 23 districts, the District of Nevada had the highest median at 954 days and the Northern District of Illinois (IL-N) had the lowest median at 309 days.
A total of 345,347 chapter 13 consumer cases filed on or after October 17, 2006 were terminated during 2015. The mean time interval from filing to closing was 1,181 days (up from 1,133 days in 2014) and the median time interval was 1,284 days (up from 1,229 days in 2014). The District of South Dakota had the highest median at 2,029 days and the Eastern District of New York had the lowest median at 120 days. However, the median and mean do not accurately convey the time required for a typical chapter 13 case; rather, they are proxies for the percent of chapter 13 cases closed by plan completion as plan completion typically takes much longer than dismissal.12
As Table 4 illustrates, a total of 151,950 reaffirmation agreements were reported as filed in 579,722 chapter 7 consumer cases terminated during the 12-month period ending December 31, 2015. IL-N had the highest total number of cases in which reaffirmation agreements were filed (6,240), followed by the Central District of California (5,111 cases) and the Eastern District of Michigan (MI-E) (4,447). Nationwide, 19 percent of chapter 7 cases closed had at least one reaffirmation agreement filed, up 1 percentage point from 2014. The Central District of Illinois reported the highest percentage of cases closed that had at least one reaffirmation agreement filed (39 percent). In 10 percent of cases with reaffirmation agreements filed, one or more agreements were submitted without attorney certification (pro se). The District of Kansas (KS) had the highest number of cases in which at least one pro se reaffirmation agreement was filed (1,099 cases). At least one pro se reaffirmation agreement was filed in 2 percent of chapter 7 cases closed. The Middle District of Alabama (29 percent of cases) and KS (25 percent) had the highest percentage of chapter 7 cases closed in which one or more pro se reaffirmation agreements were filed.
One percent of cases in which a reaffirmation agreement was filed had at least one reaffirmation agreement approved by order of the court. However, as described above, this does not indicate that reaffirmation agreements were denied in 99 percent of the cases. In 2015, the District of Montana (MT) reported the highest percentage of cases in which at least one reaffirmation agreement had been approved (90 percent), followed by the District of Colorado (30 percent), and the Southern District of Illinois (18 percent). These three districts accounted for 62 percent of the cases in which at least one reaffirmation agreement was approved.
In some cases, motions are made to the court to determine the value of property securing an allowed claim under 11 U.S.C. §§ 506 and 1325 and Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 3012. Table 5 shows the number of cases closed in 2015 in which final orders were entered determining the value of property securing a claim in an amount less than the amount of the claim, as well as the number of final orders entered determining the value of property securing a claim. Additional columns of data were added to provide further perspective on the required data.
A total of 352,159 chapter 13 consumer cases were terminated in 2015. Final orders determining the value of property securing a claim were entered in 15,531 of the cases. In 8,905 cases, the value of property was reported in one or more final orders; in 5,601 (64 percent) of those cases, at least one final order valued the property at less than the full amount of the claim.
A case may have more than one final order determining the value of property securing a claim. In total, 19,304 final orders were entered in the 15,531 cases. Determinations of the value of property were reported in 11,215 final orders, of which 6,854 (61 percent) were valued below the amount of the claim. The Southern District of Florida (FL-S) reported that 4,158 final orders had been entered determining the value of property securing a claim, the highest total of any district. Sixty-six percent of the final orders determining the value of property securing a claim (12,836 final orders) were entered in four districts (the District of South Carolina, the Eastern District of California, the Middle District of Florida, and FL-S); 50 districts reported no final orders determining the value of property securing a claim.
A total of 352,159 chapter 13 consumer cases filed on or after October 17, 2006 were closed by dismissal or plan completion in 2015. Table 6 illustrates that 162,991 of these cases were dismissed. In 54 percent of the cases closed (188,893 cases), the debtors were discharged after completing repayment plans, up from 51 percent in 2014 and 45 percent in 2013. Among districts with at least 10 closed cases, the District of Vermont (VT) had the highest percentage of cases (85 percent) closed by plan completion, followed by the District of North Dakota (82 percent) and MT (81 percent). Of the 188,893 chapter 13 consumer cases in which debtors completed repayment plans, 40,208 (21 percent) had plans that were modified at least once prior to plan completion, down from 22 percent in 2014.
Nationwide, failure to make plan payments was cited in 54 percent of cases as the reason for dismissal, the same as 2014. Among districts with at least 10 closed cases, the Eastern District of North Carolina had the greatest percentage of dismissals (90 percent) that were for failure to make payments, the highest percentage of any district. CT had the lowest percentage of its dismissals made for failure to make payments (4 percent), followed by MT (8 percent). Table 6 shows that 19,293 cases were refiled after dismissal.
Table 7 reports the number of cases in which individual debtors with primarily consumer debts filed for protection under chapter 13 during the reporting period and stated on the voluntary bankruptcy petition (Official Form 101) that they previously had filed a case under any chapter of the Bankruptcy Code during the preceding eight years ("prior filings"). For this table, data are captured at the time of filing, and only data on the initial filing of each case are counted. Data on reopened cases are excluded to prevent duplicate reporting. The data for Table 7 are provided exclusively by the debtors and are subject to the limitations described in the section above on debtor-provided data.
In 38 percent (110,173) of the 292,577 cases in which debtors sought protection under chapter 13 in 2015, the debtors stated that they had filed a bankruptcy petition during the previous 8 years. In the remaining 182,404 cases, debtors stated that they had not filed for bankruptcy during the previous 8 years. Among districts with more than 25 filings in 2015, the District of Idaho recorded the highest percentage of cases with prior filings at 57 percent, followed by TN-W (56 percent). The districts with the lowest percentage of cases in which debtors indicated prior filings were VT (prior filings were reported in 17 percent of cases) and MI-E (19 percent).
28 U.S.C. § 159(c)(3)(G) requires the Director of the AO to report on Athe number of cases in which creditors were fined for misconduct and any amount of punitive damages awarded by the court for creditor misconduct.” Creditor misconduct, however, is not a specific cause of action under the Bankruptcy Code. At least five violations of the Bankruptcy Code could be considered creditor misconduct:
Table 8X shows that creditors were fined for misconduct in 173 consumer cases closed during 2015 and that orders to pay punitive damages totaling $85,000 were issued in 17 of those cases.
Fed. R. Bankr. P. 9011 provides that attorneys may be sanctioned for improper or frivolous representations to the court submitted in any petition, pleading, written motion, or other paper. The rule states that "a sanction imposed for violation of this rule shall be limited to what is sufficient to deter repetition of such conduct or comparable conduct by others similarly situated." Any "sanction may consist of, or include, directives of a nonmonetary nature, an order to pay a penalty into court, or . . . an order directing payment to the movant of some or all of the reasonable attorneys' fees and other expenses incurred as a direct result of the violation." Fed. R. Bankr. P. 9011(c)(2). The Table 9 series captures only misconduct by debtors’ attorneys that rises to the level required for sanctions under Fed. R. Bankr. P. 9011. Because a debtor's attorney may be reprimanded or penalized for misconduct in other ways, this table does not provide a comprehensive picture of sanctions imposed against debtors' attorneys in bankruptcy courts.
Table 9X shows that of the 933,122 consumer cases filed on or after October 17, 2006, and terminated in 2015, sanctions were imposed against debtors' attorneys in 38 cases, with damages totaling $34,000 awarded in 34 cases.
1 Consumer cases filed under chapter 11 are relatively infrequent and are generally believed to result when debtors exceed the debt restrictions of 11 U.S.C. § 109(e), which in calendar year 2015 restricts chapter 13 to debtors with less than $383,175 in noncontingent, liquidated, unsecured debts and less than $1,149,525 of noncontingent, liquidated, secured debts.
2 Debtors calculate their average monthly incomes and average monthly expenses and report them to the courts on line 10 of Schedule I (income) and line 22 of Schedule J (expenses). The AO then calculates the median of the average monthly incomes reported by debtors for all districts and circuits.
4 Form B 6 was in effect for the first 11 months of 2015. After December 1, 2015, the form was renumbered to B 106.
7 Current monthly income is provided on line 12 of Form 22A by chapter 7 debtors, on line 11 of Form 22B by chapter 11 debtors, and line 11 of Form 22C by chapter 13 debtors.
11 Tables 4, 5, 6, 8A-8X, and 9A-9X include reopened cases, whereas Table 3 does not include reopened cases. Accordingly, the total for cases closed in Table 3 may differ from the total in other tables.
BAPCPA Report - 20152015 BAPCPA Statistical Tables
Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) (December 31, 2015) (pdf, 561.25 KB)