New Hampshire bankruptcy picture remained the same in March

Despite Covid-19, filings followed a familiar, downward course

So far the economic tsunami that hit New Hampshire in mid-March hasn’t resulted in a deluge of bankruptcies, but that’s no surprise since bankruptcies are a lagging indicator of the state of the economy.

Some 149 individuals and businesses filed for bankruptcy in March. That’s 34 more than February but 17 fewer (or a 10% decline) than March 2019. Compare that to 586 filers in March 2010, when the monthly record was set for most filings during the Great Recession. Indeed, March 2020 had the lowest number of filings of any March since 1989 (with the exception of 2006, after he bankruptcy laws were rewritten to make it harder to file.)

But two-thirds of those March filings came after March 15, right when the state of emergency began in earnest.

This brings the average monthly number of bankruptcies to 128, 20 fewer than at the same point 2019.

There were seven businesses-related filings by individuals, one more than last month, and one filing by a business itself. The rest were household filings that involved business-related debt. And that business filed early in the month, before the economy went south.

That business was:

• American Machining Solutions LLC, Manchester, filed March 2, Chapter 7. Assets: $334,600. Liabilities: $206,314.