posted on December 11, 2010 03:47
Near-record unemployment and foreclosures have propelled Orlando-area bankruptcies to record heights again this year, though a dramatic slowdown in new cases last month has raised some hope that the financial crisis may be bottoming out. More than 21,800 bankruptcy petitions were filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Orlando through the first 11 months of the year, eclipsing the previous annual record of 20,205 set just last year, according to the latest data from the court's Orlando division. "We are the second-busiest bankruptcy-court division in the country," said Lori Patton, a veteran consumer-bankruptcy lawyer and a former president of the Central Florida Bankruptcy Law Association. "It is still pretty grim out there for many people." Still, after several years of surging without letup, the number of Orlando-area filings essentially leveled off in November compared with the same month last year, court figures show.
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