Hawaii bankruptcy filings are on track to reach their lowest yearly total since before the recession.

Statewide filings fell 13.9 percent in July to mark the 13th consecutive monthly decline on a year-over-year basis, according to data released Friday from U.S. Bankruptcy Court. There were 155 cases filed in July compared with 180 in the year-earlier period.

Bankruptcy filings have gone 28 months overall without rising. The only month without a decline during that streak was in June 2013 when the number of cases — 185 — matched the total of June 2012.

Through the first seven months of this year, there have been 1,041 filings, or an average of about 149 a month. At that pace, 2014 would end with 1,786 filings, which would be the lowest total since 1,381 were filed in 2007 — the year before the 18-month recession began. It also would mark the fourth year in a row that bankruptcies had declined from the previous 12 months.

"In January I said there would be maybe 1,800 filings this year, and so far we’re on track," said Honolulu bankruptcy attorney Blake Goodman.

"Bankruptcies are now half of where they were three years ago in 2011. July is traditionally one of the slowest months of the year. Things are pretty brisk at the beginning of the year and then start to slow down and hit a trough in the middle of summer before getting active during the fall in September and October."

At their recent peak in 2010, bankruptcy cases averaged 330 a month and hit 3,954 for the year as the local economy recovered from the 2008-2009 recession.

In July the most common type of bankruptcy — Chapter 7 liquidation — dropped 12.2 percent to 108 from 123. Chapter 13 filings, which allow individuals with regular sources of income to set up plans to pay creditors over time, declined 13.2 percent to 46 from 53.

There was one Chapter 11 filing, which allow a business to reorganize, compared with four in July 2013.

Across the state, July bankruptcies in Honolulu County fell 2.8 percent to 105 from 108. Hawaii island filings slipped 5.3 percent to 18 from 19. Maui County cases fell 42.9 percent to 24 from 42, and Kauai cases dropped 27.3 percent to eight from 11.

Goodman said when he began practicing bankruptcy law 22 years ago, there were 300,000 to 400,000 bankruptcy filings a year in the U.S. In the span of a decade, they jumped about sixfold to 2 million, he said.

"That was a decade of prosperity, so it’s always been my experience in good times and bad times, there’s too much debt out there regardless of the economy," he said. "But I think what happened with this last economic downturn is that creditors constricted their lending practices. They were very cautious with new homes, cars and credit cards. And not only that, we came out of the recession with less unemployment and more building, jobs and disposable income. So I think there’s something very unique going on. There’s less debt out there than there usually is.

"I’ve never experienced a three-year-in-a-row drop in bankruptcy filings (2011-2013) in the 22 years I’ve been doing this."