Local bankruptcy filings have increased nearly 23 percent for the first five months of the year, according to the Journal Record newspaper.

The newspaper compared the Western District of Oklahoma filings from January through May of 2007 to those similar months in 2008. In those months in 2007, 1,844 consumers and businesses filed for federal protection. In 2008, that number had risen to 2,258.

Filings in the court's Northern District in Tulsa were up more than 22 percent in the first four months of the year and 13.5 percent in the Eastern District in Muskogee.

Attorneys interviewed by the newspaper said the increase seems to be coming on the business side. Many of the filings are from real estate investors and people in industries dependent on fuel.

When the economy softens or prices spike upward, it doesn't take much to go from paying the bills to paying some of the bills.