HOUSTON - Only Delaware handled more cases than the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas over a five year period, according to a Lex Machina report.
Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company, released its Bankruptcy Report today, which examines trends in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, including the entire dockets in any bankruptcy proceeding filed in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code.
The report focuses on the five-year period from 2017 to 2021 and surveys emerging trends in case filings, courts, judges, law firms, parties, and timing metrics.
According to the report, the highest number of cases was filed in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware over the five-year period (4,019 cases for 12.3 percent of the total number of cases filed during that time).
The Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas was second with 3,258 cases (10 percent), followed by the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in third with 2,786 cases (8.5 percent).
Judge David Jones from the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas presided over the highest number of bankruptcy cases over the last five years with 1,970 cases, according to the report.
Judge Marvin Isgur, also from the Southern District, was the second most active judge, hearing 1,127 cases over the same period of time.
The report also shows that the trend of bankruptcy case filings demonstrated a brief spike in 2020 followed by a steep drop in 2021. In 2021, 4,526 Chapter 11 cases were filed, the lowest number filed in any year over the past ten years.
“This was a fascinating report to produce, both because it showcases data and analytics from our newest court system, but also because the analytics revealed some powerful insights and intriguing trends,” said Laura Hopkins, Lex Machina's bankruptcy legal data expert and editor of the report.
"Not only could we see the quantifiable effect the pandemic and its aftermath had on Chapter 11 proceedings, but our filters also highlighted the different effects the pandemic had on bankruptcy filings depending on the type of debtor and total amount of liabilities."
Other findings from the report include:
- The court with the most Chapter 11 confirmed plans in the last five years was the Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California;
- Jackson Walker represented debtors in the highest number of Chapter 11 proceedings over the past five years, while Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones represented creditor committees in the highest number of cases during the same period; and
- The median time to plan confirmation was 393 days for Chapter 11 proceedings terminated from 2017 to 2021.
Register here for a copy of the report.