Bankruptcy filings in South Dakota are up 6 percent from a year ago but on a pace for the year that officials say would be lower than the historical average.

Bankruptcy filings through June 30 totaled 726, according to statistics from the United States Bankruptcy Court. There were 687 filings through the same six months in 2007.

If this year's filings double by the end of the year, the total still will be lower than the "historical average" said Forrest Allred, a Chapter 7 trustee for the northern division of the United States Bankruptcy Court, District of South Dakota.

The 4,172 bankruptcies that were filed in 2005 was more than any other year in two decades and almost double the 1994-2004 average of 2,483. Allred said the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act prompted more people to file because they thought it would be harder to file for bankruptcy after the act took effect.

"So there was this huge run up in cases in 2005," Allred said. "South Dakota is not a real big state, and at any given time there is an inventory of people out there who would be candidates for Chapter 7. What happened is that they got drawn down." There were "a lot more filings, so consequently, it takes a while to rebuild that pool, so to speak."

Allred said the numbers are still low in comparison to what the averages were before the 2005 act.

Dale Wein, Chapter 12 and 13 trustee for United States Bankruptcy Court, District of South Dakota, cites medical costs and divorce as some of the causes of filings.

Kay Ashburn, community relations coordinator for Lutheran Social Services' Consumer Credit Counseling Service, said the organization's six branches educated more than 900 people last year and numbers are going up. Two-and-a-half hours of bankruptcy education is mandated by the 2005 act. Ashburn said the organization reviews monthly spending, how to put together monthly budgets and other related matters.