WASHINGTON-Financially-troubled wireless companies and high-tech firms could face severe delays in emerging from bankruptcy, owing to a record number of bankruptcies this year, insufficient funding of bankruptcy courts and the lack of federal judges at a time of expanding workload.
The Administrative Office of U.S. Courts today said business bankruptcies this fiscal year totaled 39,091, or 1.5 percent above last year’s historic high. Non-business bankruptcies made up the lion’s share of filings, accounting for more than 1.5 million of the total 1,547,669 bankruptcy filings in the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, 2002.
The caseload of bankruptcy judges has increased 59 percent during the past decade, according to a court administrator, while no new bankruptcy judges have been added to the federal courts since 1992.
