When the Bankruptcy Laws changed in October 2005 people rushed to file bankruptcy before the new bankruptcy laws went into effect.  The number of filers back then was off the charts.  Well the number of people filing bankruptcy in Wisconsin are back to the record number days.

Bankruptcy filings in Wisconsin rose 16% during the first half of this year, an increase lawyers say was driven largely by consumers and small-business operators who couldn’t find enough work in the slow economy to keep up with their debts.

There were 16,021 bankruptcy petitions filed in federal court through June, compared with 13,802 during the same period a year earlier, U.S. Bankruptcy Court records show.

The half-year figure nearly equaled the 16,266 filed from January through June of 2005, when debtors hurried to court to declare insolvency before a tougher bankruptcy law took effect.

The current surge is tied mostly to unemployment and under employment, Wisconsin bankruptcy attorneys said Wednesday.

“I don’t see it slowing down,” said Robert Waud of the Todd C. Esser & Associates law firm in Milwaukee. “Until America gets back to work, we’re going to be busy.”

Eighty-two percent were Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the type that lets consumers wipe out debt such as credit card balances and medical and utility bills.

The figures in Wisconsin roughly track with those nationally. The American Bankruptcy Institute said consumer bankruptcy filings were up 14% in the first six months of 2010.

The institute, which projects more than 1.6 million bankruptcy filings in the U.S. in 2010, said years of rising consumer debt and low savings rates have combined with the housing slump and unemployment to drive bankruptcies higher.

Bruce Lanser, of Lanser Law Office in Waukesha, said people who have been running their own small companies for 20 or 30 years are among those forced to throw in the towel as the housing slump has dragged on.

“I’m talking about people who are in the trades – carpenters, masons, plumbers,” Lanser said. “They used to get called by the builders, the general contractors. Since they are not building homes, they are trying to shift into remodeling and refurbishing and whatnot. But people aren’t spending a ton on that, either.”