The New York Metropolitan area is leading the nation in bankruptcy filings, outpacing the national average of 34 percent, according to an article in The New York Times (“Rise Of Bankruptcy Rate In Region Outpaces Rest Of Nation,” Dec. 15, 2008).

The metropolitan area alone has seen 36 percent more filings in the third quarter of 2008, compared to the same period last year. Individual consumers and businesses, squeezed by mounting debt levels and rising unemployment numbers, have been filing for bankruptcy protection at a rate of 175 per day.

Nearly three-quarters of the 4,323 bankruptcy filings in Brooklyn’s Eastern District Court were personal Chapter 7 bankruptcies, compared to just 126 bankruptcies filed by area businesses. In the Southern District Court in Manhattan, failed investment bank Lehman Brothers and the discount retail chain Steve & Barry’s, were among the businesses looking to reorganize their debt as opposed to liquidating it this quarter — up 45 percent compared with the same quarter last year.

Along with an overall increase in filings, local bankruptcy lawyers have noticed a shift in bankruptcy filing trends: Lenders are seeking debt settlements earlier in the process, and debtors, who are now commonly middle-and upper-middle class, are increasingly forgoing the option of reworking their payment terms.

“We are seeing debt-collection efforts really being ratcheted up over the last couple of months,” said Jay Fleischman, a bankruptcy lawyer in Park Slope, Brooklyn. “What we’re seeing is the debts being sued upon far earlier in the process. That leaves consumers with the feeling that they don’t have the options they once did.”

And some experts say these record-high numbers are only going to increase over the next few months as the slumping economy continues to erode retail sales.

“A lot of us in the profession believe that once we get through the Christmas and holiday shopping season, that there will be a literal wave of ne Chapter 11 cases, largely in the retail arena,” said Michael Richman, chairman of the Manhattan bankruptcy law firm Foley & Lardner. “We’re going to see a continued increase on a regular basis for a long period of time, a period that’s going to outlast the recession, I think, for years.”

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