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Bankruptcy Court - Data, Statistics, and Protection Issues
Bankruptcy has been changing faces a lot in the past couple of years with
the focus of protection shifting a bit from the lendee to the lender. Find out
the effects of the new Bankruptcy Abuse Act and more.
Bankruptcy Court records in the United States may be found in the Federal
Bankruptcy File, which contains the filings, both personal and business in
nature, of 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam.
Bankruptcy records are divided by US District Court file and the earliest date
on file will not be uniform across states. And since filing systems also differ
across states, so will data. But in general, you will find these five basic
bankruptcy details:
• filer's name, address
• bankruptcy file number
• bankruptcy chapter filed under
• date filed
• filing status
Bankruptcy Court Statistics
Bankruptcy Court filings decreased dramatically after the Bankruptcy Abuse Act
was enacted into law in October 2005. By November, only around 14,500
bankruptcies were filed compared to the whopping 630,400 the month before.
However, it is worthy to note that October filings may have skyrocketed in
anticipation of the passage of the new Bankruptcy Law, since in July 2005 only
around 133,700 filings were reported.
Bankruptcy Protection
The new law was passed primarily to protect consumers from commercial
establishments that would file for bankruptcy for the sole purpose of reneging
on their obligations to consumers.
The courts have typically bent backwards in favor of a person or company filing
for bankruptcy, tending to protect the interests of an individual or enterprise
in trouble. Cases have even been reported where, despite proof of perjury on the
part of the filer regarding source of income (bigger than stated) and employment
(not unemployed), the court would not penalize the perjurer.
The new law now looks after the interests of clients and consumers of these
individuals or companies who fail to pay.
However, the filer still gets protection even if Bankruptcy Court filings are
public records available via the Internet. Under the Federal Rules of
Bankruptcy, made effective at the end of 2003, the first 5 digits of filers'
Social Security numbers are redacted or removed from records accessible to the
public.
Judicial policy regarding public access to court records is still evolving. Many
states have now seen the importance of redacting bankruptcy case files, as well
as civil and criminal ones, to protect those whose personal data is included in
court filings from being victimized by identity thieves.
However, if your search for bankruptcy court cases need only tell you a general
summary of the case (i.e., without all the details) for your purposes then a
quick online search is all you need to do. Take a look at the top
bankruptcy court
search sites reviewed
at RecordsSiteReviews to jumpstart your search. |
