Subchapter V of Chapter 11 was created by the Small Business
Reorganization Act of 2019 and took effect February 19, 2020. The chart below
tracks quarterly Sub V filings nationally, with annotations for the CARES Act
debt-ceiling expansion (March 2020) and its sunset (June 2024).
What the chart shows
2020-Q1: Sub V's first quarter (effective Feb 19, 2020). Adoption immediate.
2020-Q2 onward: CARES Act raised the Sub V debt ceiling
from $2.7M to $7.5M, expanding eligibility. Filings climbed.
2022-2023: Plateau at the expanded ceiling. Sub V becomes
the dominant small-business reorganization tool.
June 2024: $7.5M ceiling sunset; Sub V eligibility reverts
to ~$3.024M (post-COLA). Filings drop as cases above the lower threshold are
forced into standard Chapter 11.
2024-Q3 onward: Stabilization at the lower ceiling.
Why the sunset matters
Standard Chapter 11 is significantly more expensive and procedurally
demanding than Sub V. The 2024 ceiling reversion priced thousands of small
businesses out of the small-business reorganization track and into either
standard Chapter 11 (more expensive), Chapter 7 (liquidation), or out-of-court
workouts.
Legislative proposals to restore the $7.5M ceiling have been introduced in
multiple sessions of Congress but have not been enacted as of this writing.
Methodology
Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Table F-2A (Quarterly Filings under Chapter 11).
Approach: Quarterly Sub V counts isolated from total Chapter 11 volume.
Numbers shown are approximations from publicly-available AOUSC reporting and
will be refined as quarterly updates are released. Methodology versioning is
tracked in the public repository.