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Saturday, October 15, 2005

The Blade: In Toledo, Hundreds File for Bankruptcy

Article published Saturday, October 15, 2005 in the Toledo Blade:

DEADLINE LOOMS
Hundreds locally file for bankruptcy; Tougher reforms to kick in on Monday

By JON CHAVEZ
BLADE BUSINESS WRITER

There were nine people ahead of her in line, but Toledoan Maria Gonzales did not mind, politely allowing a few people to go ahead of her.

The important thing, said the Lucas County employee, was that she had gotten to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court clerk's office in downtown Toledo before closing yesterday, allowing her to file for Chapter 7 debt relief before changes from a new law slated to kick in on Monday.

She was one of hundreds of filers locally yesterday, and thousands nationwide, nearly all trying to submit their cases prior to the tougher reforms taking effect.

At 4:30 p.m., the Toledo court covering 21 northwest Ohio counties had 410 bankruptcies filed for the day, and the chief clerk expected the final number, with electronic filings after hours, to reach 800 to 900. That would mean 4,200 so far this month, in the days leading up to the new law, or twice the number of the previous highest month.

More stunning, the Toledo court and others in Ohio are virtually leading the nation in bankruptcy filings.
As of mid-week, there were as many cases filed in northwest Ohio as were filed for the month in the state of Massachusetts and in the Manhattan borough in New York City, each of which has considerably larger populations...


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