Bankruptcy filings are not uniform across the year, the week, or the month. They follow seasonal and within-month patterns that practitioners know but few empirical studies publish at scale. From 201,979 federal cases filed 1996-2025.
| Month | % of year | vs uniform | Deviation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 7.2% | -1.12pp | |
| Feb | 7.3% | -1.00pp | |
| Mar | 9.3% | +0.93pp | |
| Apr | 8.9% | +0.53pp | |
| May | 8.5% | +0.15pp | |
| Jun | 8.2% | -0.15pp | |
| Jul | 8.3% | -0.04pp | |
| Aug | 8.7% | +0.34pp | |
| Sep | 8.5% | +0.18pp | |
| Oct | 10.0% | +1.72pp | |
| Nov | 7.8% | -0.57pp | |
| Dec | 7.4% | -0.91pp |
Three clear seasonal patterns:
Feb+Mar+Apr accounts for 25.4% of all annual filings. With Feb-Apr representing roughly 24.4% of calendar days, the empirical excess is +4.4% (~2,150 extra cases per year). The tax-refund effect is real but modest in size — not the dominant factor practitioners sometimes assume. The end-of-month / mid-week patterns are larger drivers.
| Day | Filings | % of week |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 38,041 | 18.8% |
| Tuesday | 35,896 | 17.8% |
| Wednesday | 44,710 | 22.1% |
| Thursday | 37,958 | 18.8% |
| Friday | 38,605 | 19.1% |
| Saturday | 4,526 | 2.2% |
| Sunday | 2,243 | 1.1% |
Court is open Monday-Friday; weekend filings are emergency-only (judge's chambers, after-hours clerk staff). The weekday distribution shows:
The end-of-month / start-of-month financial-pressure cycle shows up in the data:
The end-of-month spike (28-31) reflects financial-pressure peaks at month boundaries:
Mid-month filing patterns (days 14-15) reflect a secondary peak from bi-weekly paycheck and billing cycles for households on different schedules.
Bankruptcy clerks' offices and trustees know about these patterns informally. The 22% Wednesday peak means staffing should accommodate ~22% of weekly workload on one day. The October peak suggests front-loading audit / review staffing for fall.
For pro-se filers planning their case, the seasonal pattern matters less than the procedural deadlines. But knowing that filings cluster around end-of-month makes some sense of why local courts emphasize advance scheduling.
Studies examining bankruptcy filing volume should account for seasonal patterns. Cross-month comparisons need seasonal adjustment; year-over-year comparisons at the monthly level need to factor in calendar effects (e.g., differences in number of business days per month).
201,979 cases analyzed, 1996-2025. Restricted to standard chapter cases (7, 11, 13). Date_filed field is reliable; case_office and chapter classifications are reliable. Day-of-week computed from calendar; day-of-month and month-of-year are direct extractions.
Open Bankruptcy Project (2026). Bankruptcy Filing Seasonality Dataset, v0.1. 501(c)(3) public charity (EIN 41-5159631). URL: https://viz.openbankruptcyproject.org/seasonality/ License: CC BY 4.0