Total bankruptcy filings rose 32.7 percent last month compared with January 2009, according to figures from the Office of the U.S. Trustee for U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Hawaii district.

In January 2009 total bankruptcy filings in Hawaii soared 82.5 percent over January 2008 filings.

Among the 276 cases filed last month, the sharpest increase to 60 cases from 38, or nearly 58 percent, came in Chapter 13 cases. That category allows filers with regular sources of income to work out payment arrangements with creditors.

Conversely, Chapter 7 cases, in which filers seek liquidation or discharge of their debt, rose nearly 26 percent, to 214 cases from 170 in January 2009.

The Chapter 7 filings included one by Maui Industrial Loan & Finance Co.

Only one business filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in January: ERT Sales of Hawaii, which does business as Price Busters, The Seasonal Store and Let's Party Hawaii. No Chapter 11 cases were filed in January 2009.

One foreign company also filed for bankruptcy in January.

Total cases for 2009, 3,101, were on par with the 3,102 filed in 2004, said Honolulu bankruptcy attorney Blake Goodman.

The year 2004 “;was a relatively prosperous time in Hawaii,”; he noted. “;Hawaii as a state can absorb a lot more bad news than it has absorbed over the two years of the recession,”; he said.

Not that he wishes anyone ill.

“;I think the end of the 1990s was much rougher than we experienced in the late-2009 period,”; he said. “;I guess if there's any hope economically, if a business survived in the late 1990s here in Hawaii, it might have made you tough enough to survive what's going on now.”;

Anecdotally, more Realtors and mortgage brokers seem to be making money, and “;car salesmen aren't around the block in line here (to file for bankruptcy),”; which are positive signs, he said.