who handles bankruptcy cases across the state, said he saw a dramatic increase in cases last year.
“There are many factors,” he said. Schreiber said the country’s economic situation has played out across an area where business and factory closings have increased unemployment. “Even before (the national economic problems), the economy in Grant County hasn’t been good,” he said. He said loss of a job, a reduction in pay, medical emergencies and people becoming estranged or divorced are the most common factors that force consumers into bankruptcy court. “I’ve seen, over the last year, a combination of all those,” he said. This particular wave of filings has also affected people at all classes of wealth, he said. “Everyone can be one or two paychecks away from bankruptcy,” he said. Overall consumer filings reached 1,064,927 in 2008, up from 801,840 in 2007, according to data collected by the National Bankruptcy Research Center and published by the American Bankruptcy Institute, a Virginia-based research company.
