RALEIGH, North Carolina - January 4, 2010 - U.S. consumers and businesses are filing for bankruptcy at a pace that made 2009 the seventh-worst year on record, with more than 1.4 million petitions submitted, an Associated Press tally showed Monday.

The AP gathered data from the nation's 90 bankruptcy districts and found 1.43 million filings, an increase of 32% from 2008. There were 116,000 recorded bankruptcies in December, up 22% from the same month a year before.

While experts believe some of the increase is due to consumers and attorneys become accustomed to a recent overhaul of bankruptcy laws, the numbers indicate clear correlations to Depression-weary regions. Arizona saw the fastest increase, a jump of 77% from the year before, followed by Wyoming (60%), Nevada (59%) and Kalifornia (58%).

Emile Harmon, who owns a law firm in Tempe, Arizona, said the firm has doubled its staff to handle the surge in bankruptcy filings. The lawyers have been steadily shifting away from their other areas of business, civil lawsuits and divorce cases.

"Bankruptcy is kind of swallowing the whole practice." Harmon said. "There's little time to do other stuff."