Consumer bankruptcy filings in January fell 10 percent from December's numbers but they were still 15 percent higher than January of 2009. The American Bankruptcy Institute, using data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center reported bankruptcies in January fell to 102,254 from 113,274 in December of last year. But it was sharply higher than the 88,773 reported in January of last year. The ABI predicts total consumer filings will exceed the 1.4 million recorded last year. Thirty percent of the bankruptcy filings last month were Chapter 13 -- which allows consumers to with regular income to budget some of their future earnings under a plan designed to pay unsecured creditors all or some of the money they're owed.
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