u/magiccitybhm

Alabama’s bankruptcy filings keep going up, and its personal filings driving it.

And the state had the nation’s highest bankruptcy filing rate every year from 2020 through 2025, reaching nearly 400 filings per 100,000 residents in 2025.

That’s according to data from the U.S. Courts and Census Bureau population estimates, which shows Alabama’s bankruptcy filing rate is roughly 142% higher than the national average.

In fact, most states fall between 80 and 180 filings per 100,000 residents, so Alabama isn’t just at the top of bankruptcy cases, it’s in a different tier entirely.

Compared to other Southern states, Mississippi wasn’t too far off with a filing rate of 330 per 100,000 residents, followed by Tennessee, which had a rate of 296 and Georgia with 280.

Even though Alabama has had a steady climb over the past four years, 2025’s bankruptcy filings were still roughly 25% below the 2017 peak, when the rate hit 554 filings per 100,000 residents.

Alabama showed signs of recovery from bankruptcy filing highs of the pandemic, after pandemic relief programs like stimulus payments and loan forbearance helped a lot of Alabamians stay out of bankruptcy court.

Filings fell roughly 20% from about 18,400 in 2020 to about 14,900 in 2021, with the filing rate dropping along with it, from nearly 366 to 296 filings per 100,000 residents. That figure is the lowest dip the state has seen in a decade.

But since bottoming out in 2021, Alabama has added nearly 5,700 bankruptcy filings from 16,561 in 2022 to 20,636 in 2025 — up some 25% in just three years.

Total bankruptcy filings from 2020 to 2025 were:

• 2020: 18,412
• 2021: 14,940
• 2022: 16,561
• 2023: 17,887
• 2024: 19,395
• 2025: 20,636

Nearly all of that growth has come from personal filings, and business filings accounted for almost 1% of those.

Still 98% of bankruptcy filings every year from 2015 to 2025 have been non-business related, while total filings went up nearly 6% year-over-year.

That imbalance between personal and business bankruptcy filings means it’s not companies who are struggling, it’s individuals.

Nationwide, bankruptcy filings barely moved up 5% from 2020 to 2025, but year-over-year filings went up 11% with inflation and rising consumer prices.

Ugh.

Duplicate submitted 5/29 (93 days ago) still pending.

Duplicate submitted 6/2 (89 days ago) still pending ... it's same name and cemetery.

Duplicate submitted 6/5 (86 days ago) still pending ... it's same name and cemetery.

Nine duplicates submitted 6/7 (84 days ago) still pending.

That's 12 weeks or more they're behind ... almost three months.

U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville said he will likely not debate Democratic nominee Doug Jones during the final months of Alabama gubernatorial race.

Although Tuberville was in Athens on Wednesday to give a Washington update to the local chamber of commerce, he dedicated a portion of the speech to his run for governor as the Republican nominee.

“There’s so much difference between us,” Tuberville said to the press after the luncheon. “There’s no reason to get up and argue about the differences in opinions. We know where the Democrats stand. We know where conservative Republicans stand. I don’t think there is any reason to kind of get into a debate about that because there really is no debate, just differences in opinions.”

Tuberville said he does not “trust polls,” although a recent polling showed the race tighter than expected in a solidly Republican state.

“I just go out and work,” the senator said, noting that he did it for a year-and-a-half during his run for Senate in 2020.

“We’re doing the same thing now, unfortunately I’ve got a fulltime job in D.C., so I don’t get to do as much,” Tuberville said. “I enjoy doing these. I was in Rainsville yesterday, Scottsboro, Huntsville, all the way over here. I go back to Birmingham in just a few minutes.”

On his run for governor, Tuberville turned to words familiar from his days as Auburn’s football coach, saying he was putting a game plan together for the state and wanted to get people to work together.

He listed improving the state’s transportation system, improving public safety and education, where he said he wanted to put a priority on workforce development.

“We need to educate our kids, and we need to keep them here,” Tuberville said.

“We need to keep them in the state. We’re going to need workers. We’re going to change a lot of the things that we are doing right now in terms of education, K through 12, higher education, our community colleges. We’re going to tweak that. We have to have kids who can use their hands.”

Tuberville said the state did not need any more kids “who are going to spend $100,000 at Auburn and get a sociology degree, and they get out, hell, they can’t get a job at Walmart.”

“We’ve got to teach them how to use their hands,” he said. “We need nurses. We need welders. We need electricians … They are great jobs. You can make a heck of a lot more doing that than you can working at Walmart.”

Tuberville placed a priority on teaching skills needed for those jobs in the higher levels of high school in every school.

“We’re going to get back to shop,” he said. “We’re going to get it in community colleges. If they want to go for one year or two years, or get into an apprentice program and go out and work, I’m all for that.”

Tuberville said he was all for going to four-year schools, “but sometimes, if you go there and you don’t get a degree, whether it’s the law, or its health, medicine or accounting, some of those things, and you get into some of those little art fields, then you’ve got problems. I want them to be able to get jobs and have a great life. We need to focus on that.”

UAB AD Mark Ingram fired after 11 years. Very, VERY interesting that none of his senior assistant AD's named interim.

UAB President Ray Watts just met with entire athletic department.