Tough congressional reforms aimed last year at halting the record rise in consumer bankruptcies at first appeared to be working. Filings plunged in the first half of 2006 to the lowest levels in 20 years. But a closer look at court statistics by The Kansas City Star and reports from area experts show that the bankruptcy numbers are steadily rising again. "What I'm seeing is a slow trend upward to pre-reform levels," said U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Berger in Kansas City, Kan. While Berger acknowledged the bankruptcy-reform law made it harder and costlier to file, "what hasn't changed is that there are still a lot of people with financial stresses in their lives." Even supporters of the tougher federal law, which took effect Oct. 17, are looking at the increased filings warily, though they insist the law is wringing abuses from the system.