Jefferson County No Longer Largest Municipal Bankruptcy
Greg Biddle
When Jefferson County, Alabama, filed Chapter 9 bankruptcy in November 9, 2011, it was the largest municipal bankruptcy case in history. That is no longer the case since the city of Detroit, Michigan recently filed its own Chapter 9 bankruptcy case. Jefferson County had debts of approximately $4 billion while Detroit has debts of approximately $18 billion. The purpose of Chapter 9 is to give cities and counties the ability to reorganize their debts. Jefferson County has submitted a plan to complete its bankruptcy case.