Out of the 517,308 bankruptcy cases filed in the United States in 2024, 50,075 of them were filed in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. That means that the Fifth Circuit’s region accounted for more than 9.5% of the total bankruptcy filings last year, which is above average for the twelve federal courts of appeals. Of the three most common types of bankruptcy proceedings (Chapters 7, 11, and 13), there were 310,631 Chapter 7 cases, 8,884 Chapter 11 cases, and 197,244 Chapter 13 cases filed in 2024, and bankruptcy cases from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas accounted for 23,801 (or 7.7%) of the Chapter 7 filings, 1,536 (17.3%) of the Chapter 11 filings, and 24,679 (or 12.5%) of the Chapter 13 filings.
| 2024 Total Bankruptcy Filings | Ch. 7 | Ch. 11 | Ch. 13 | Other Chapters | |
| United States | 517,308 | 310,631 | 8,884 | 197,244 | 549 |
| 5th Circuit | 50,075 | 23,801 | 1,536 | 24,679 | 59 |
| EDLA | 2,558 | 582 | 49 | 1,927 | 0 |
| MDLA | 1,152 | 535 | 12 | 605 | 0 |
| WDLA | 5,716 | 1,036 | 44 | 4,623 | 13 |
| NDMS | 4,178 | 1,453 | 18 | 2,704 | 3 |
| SDMS | 4,951 | 2,516 | 24 | 2,409 | 2 |
| EDTX | 5,250 | 2,890 | 86 | 2,274 | 0 |
| NDTX | 10,925 | 6,054 | 374 | 4,472 | 25 |
| SDTX | 8,302 | 4,287 | 784 | 3,215 | 16 |
| WDTX | 7,043 | 4,448 | 145 | 2,450 | 0 |
As it is clear from the data, the filings and proceedings in Texas dominate the total numbers of bankruptcy filings in the Fifth Circuit. With ongoing economic uncertainty being a theme of early 2025, we can likely expect to see all of these numbers trend upwards throughout the year.
If you have a question about how best to protect your interests if your business or someone who owes your business money becomes involved, please reach out to Gordon Arata’s bankruptcy team.