Bankruptcy filings in Mississippi are on pace to climb to its highest level since stricter bankruptcy guidelines went into effect in 2005.

The American Bankruptcy Institute reported this week that Mississippi saw bankruptcy filings increase about eight percent in the third quarter of 2008 from the same period a year ago.

Mississippi followed a national trend with U.S. bankruptcies up 34 percent during the period of July 1 and Sept. 30. Mississippi had 3,134 bankruptcy filings in the third quarter, compared with 2,908 in the same period of 2007.

The state had 2,606 bankruptcy filings in third quarter of 2006 and 11,217 total filings in 2007.

So far, Mississippi has 8,897 filings this year with fourth-quarter totals still pending.