WESTERN VA. BANKRUPTCY FILINGS MAY HAVE PASSED THEIR PEAK

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 6, 1993                   TAG: 9301060033
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
WESTERN VA. BANKRUPTCY FILINGS MAY HAVE PASSED THEIR PEAK
If bankruptcy filings are an accurate gauge of the economy, hard times are past in Western Virginia.
The number of new bankruptcy petitions filed last year fell 6.5 percent from 1991. Statistics released Tuesday showed the first significant drop in almost a decade.
Business petitions had the sharpest decline, 37.5 percent for the Roanoke, Lynchburg and Harrisonburg divisions of the federal court's Western Virginia District, said John W.L. Craig, bankruptcy court clerk.
The number of businesses filing in Roanoke, the district's largest division, dropped 46 percent last year after a 34 percent increase in 1991.
The volume of bankruptcy petitions filed, however, was almost 21 percent larger than in 1990 and more than 34 percent greater than in 1989.
Craig had no immediate explanation for the timing of the decrease. "I knew it was going to turn around sometime," he said.
In talks with other bankruptcy clerks, he found that the 1992 totals for Eastern Virginia were expected to rise about 3 to 4 percent from 1991. Bankruptcy petitions in other mid-Atlantic states have been down slightly, but the figures are up in the Northeast, Craig said.
The traditional first-of-the-year rush to file in the Western District did not occur in the first two business days of 1993, he said.
Although bankruptcies are up in the Harrisonburg area, "everybody agrees there is new construction, new homes going up" from Lexington to Winchester. "It appears that things are good, but with more business starts you have more business failures."
The number of petitions filed in the Lynchburg division rose 6.2 percent last year.
Craig said the number of liquidations fell for the first time in years. Wage-earner plan filings increased, an indication "that the bankruptcies we see are not totally hopeless." Craig said he encourages lawyers to file for wage-earner plans for their clients, because they have advantages.
Of the total bankruptcies last year, almost 85 percent were for liquidation, 14 percent were for wage-earner plans and 1.2 percent were corporate reorganizations.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB