WASHINGTON (By Eric Dash, NYTimes) October 15, 2005 — They were construction workers, schoolteachers and medical center managers. From Manhattan to Minneapolis, Chicago to San Francisco, they stood in long lines that snaked a block or more for much of yesterday. Some brought their children. Some had arrived at dawn.

It may have looked like a frenzied rush for rock concert tickets, but the thousands of people standing patiently in line for hours outside federal courthouses were waiting to file for bankruptcy. It was the final workday before a tough new federal law takes effect.

For many in line, it was the first time they were filing for bankruptcy protection. Some acknowledged that they had waited until the last minute to file because they were procrastinators, others because their paperwork had been delayed. Most spoke of a messy divorce, medical bills or mountains of student loans or credit card debt that had gnawed at their finances for years.

"I have a lot of medical bills and, unfortunately, I can't pay them," said Mercedes Estrada, a legal assistant and single mother of three young children from the Bronx, who rattled off a list of more than $50,000 in debts. "It's overwhelming and stressful."

"This is a day of last resort," added Stephen L. Morris, a lawyer bringing his clients' bankruptcy petitions to the court in Lower Manhattan.

Through Oct. 8, consumers had filed more than 1.47 million bankruptcy petitions, a 19.4 percent increase over the same period in 2004, according to Lundquist Consulting, a company in Burlingame, Calif., that compiles bankruptcy statistics. Almost 103,000 petitions were filed in the first three days of this week alone.

When the new regulations go into effect on Monday, they will introduce sweeping changes intended to make it more difficult for consumers to erase their debts. They will also increase the costs of filing for bankruptcy, adding new steps like credit counseling and more paperwork to the process. The new law, which was passed by Congress six months ago, will also require a thorough review of whether people can pay off at least some of their credit card bills and other debts.

In anticipation, there has been a rising stream of bankruptcy filings in the past several months. That has turned into a scramble in the last couple of weeks.

But at federal courthouses across the country yesterday, the sheer numbers were more than anybody in the court system could recall.

"We have never seen anything like this," said Barbara J. May, a consumer bankruptcy lawyer in St. Paul. "We knew it would be an upswing, but this is pandemonium."

Bankruptcy lawyers across the country reported scores of last-minute phone calls from anxious debtors wanting to schedule an appointment; one out-of-state client even bought a first-class airline ticket just so he could meet with an adviser.

Court clerks around the country reported that thousands of consumers had filed their bankruptcy petition electronically. But thousands more filed their paperwork in person, prompting many bankruptcy courts to use vacant courtrooms, bakery ticket numbers and extra staff members. The flood of filings is expected to continue until midnight Sunday because the judges are allowing electronic filings and some courthouses have put out drop boxes.

"Everyone expected that there would be this breaking of the levee," said Samuel Gerdano, the executive director of the American Bankruptcy Institute, an industry research group based in Arlington, Va. "But this is really astounding."

In Atlanta, lawyers stood in line outside the Richard B. Russell Federal Building for five hours to file petitions for their clients, one bringing 30 new cases to the court. In San Francisco, the bankruptcy court opened early to accommodate all the filers, among them a desk receptionist and a former dot-com chief executive.

In Los Angeles, the lines were thin because clerks took completed petitions at makeshift outdoor stations to handle the more than 4,000 filings expected by the end of the day. Typically, the court receives 200 to 250.

And in Chicago, there were consumers like Lakisha McDowell, a 24-year-old college student with credit card debt and other unpaid bills, who waited for two hours to file.

"Everyone knows the new law is going to be complicated," Ms. McDowell said. "I was eventually going to file. The change made me do it faster. "

Others also filed to be safe rather than sorry. "The law seems draconian to debtors," said Glenn Marston, while waiting in line at the bankruptcy court in Boston. "I don't know how it applies to me, but I didn't want to go through everything if it did."

But many consumers, like Dario Gromez, an unemployed construction worker from Upper Manhattan, were under the mistaken impression that the bankruptcy courts would soon shut their doors. "After Oct. 17, I can't file for bankruptcy," he said, with an application he started filling out two years ago but completed on Thursday night. "That's what I heard in line and from my brother."

Though the number of cases is expected to fall off for the next few months, the onslaught of new bankruptcy petitions will probably put pressure on the courts.

Bankruptcy judges and trustees say they will have to contend with an increased caseload in addition to understanding the new rules. "It's going to bottle up everything," said Judge Keith Lundin of the United States Bankruptcy Court in Nashville. "It is going to slow down the usual administration of bankruptcy cases for a few months as we process this bulge."

Many consumer bankruptcy lawyers will be working through the weekend. "I have 75 cases that I have to file before I can go home today," said Ms. May, who has employed five additional paralegals and her 79-year-old mother to handle the flood of phone calls. "I will be here until midnight on Sunday and people are still calling to get appointments."

In many cases, consumers trying to get their bankruptcy petitions in under the wire had been contemplating the decision for a long while. The deadline, however, led them to act.

Marshall and Yolanda Sanford of Atlanta, a couple in their 30's, said they had considered filing for bankruptcy for two years but finally headed to the courthouse there yesterday after deciding they could no longer dig their way out of debt. "It's not a good feeling at all," Mr. Sanford said, his voice trailing off.

"I'm scared," his wife added, "but finally it's over."

Brenda Goodman contributed reporting from Atlanta for this article, Gretchen Ruethling from Chicago, Carolyn Marshall from San Francisco, Cindy Chang from Los Angeles and Kate Zezima from Boston.