The National Bankruptcy Research Center, a data research company, reports that Tennessee holds the distinction of having the highest per capita number of bankruptcy filings in the country.  According to the NBRC, Tennesseans are filing bankruptcy at a rate that will result in an annual bankruptcy filing rate of one out of every 56 households.

The NBRC did not comment as to why Tennessee has so many bankruptcy filings, but we at Clark and Washington actually see a large number of filers and we tend to see the same situations again and again.

In our practice, we see a large number of filers who are there because of:

• job loss
• out of control credit card debt
• medical issues (resulting in a so called "medical bankruptcy")
• divorce or family issues
• pending foreclosures

We have also been seeing more and more clients who previously held high paying jobs and who were, until recently, financially stable.