BAPCPA’s Statistical Requirements Prompt CM/ECF Bankruptcy Release 3.1 for Linux and Revised/New Official Bankruptcy Forms
William C. Redden
U.S. Bankruptcy Court (E.D. Va.); Richmond, Va
Pursuant to §601 of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA), and as additionally required by the Judicial Conference Committee on the administration of the bankruptcy system, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO) is now required to compile enumerated statistics collected by bankruptcy courts in certain chapter 7, 11 and 13 cases. As part of this new requirement, the AO must compile certain statistical information on bankruptcy cases under chapters 7, 11 and 13 of the Bankruptcy Code filed by individual debtors with primarily consumer debts. The AO must also make such data available to the public and publish a report on that compilation by July 1, 2008 (and annually thereafter). To assist with these requirements, the AO encouraged all bankruptcy courts to be live on CM/ECF Bankruptcy Release 3.1 for Linux (Bankruptcy Release 3.1) by Oct. 17, 2006. All bankruptcy courts must have completed the required upgrade to Bankruptcy Release 3.1 no later than Oct. 20, 2006, which is the effective date of the statistical reporting requirements set forth in BAPCPA. Several bankruptcy courts used the Columbus Day federal holiday weekend to migrate CM/ECF data from existing formats to Bankruptcy Release 3.1. For example, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia successfully migrated its CM/ECF data from Bankruptcy Release 3.0 for Linux to Bankruptcy Release 3.1 over the Columbus Day federal holiday weekend.
A major change in Bankruptcy Release 3.1 is that the case-opening processes do not permit the filing of a bankruptcy petition or adversary-proceeding-complaint utilizing software that is not compatible with Bankruptcy Release 3.1. Recognizing issues related to this change, bankruptcy courts took various steps to prevent filing disruption. For example, last summer, the Eastern District of Virginia encouraged its users to advise their respective bankruptcy preparation software providers of the court’s scheduled migration to Release 3.1. Having provided these vendors with advanced notification of the bankruptcy court’s scheduled upgrade, bankruptcy preparation software vendors were in a better position to provide users with the necessary updates for continued successful electronic filing.
To assist users with the case opening change and other changes in Bankruptcy Release 3.1, the AO prepared a document titled CM/ECF Release 3.1 Notes for PACER Users. This document can be found on the PACER Service Center’s Web site and on many bankruptcy courts’ Web sites. For example, CM/ECF Release 3.1 Notes for PACER Users is also posted to the Eastern District of Virginia’s CM/ECF Web site under the “Users’ Guides” link at http://www.vaeb.uscourts.gov/ecfguides/ecfotm.htm. In addition, bankruptcy courts have prepared documents to assist their local users with Bankruptcy Release 3.1. The Eastern District of Virginia developed CM/ECF Release 3.1 Guide to Changes for External Users and posted this document on its Web site.
To further facilitate the collection of the statistical data required by BAPCPA, the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules proposed (a) amending several bankruptcy official forms and (b) creating a new form. To give bankruptcy courts, lawyers, forms publishers and software vendors additional time to address implementation issues, the AO made the proposed forms available earlier than its normal process. The Judicial Conference of the United States met last month and approved the recommendations regarding these forms. The new and amended forms became effective Oct. 1, 2006. The amendments are to Official Forms 1, 5, 6, 9, 22A, 22C and 23. The new form is Exhibit D to Official Form 1. In addition to applicable BAPCPA data collection requirements, other changes, both substantive and stylistic, have been made to the forms to address other revisions and amendments to the Bankruptcy Code implemented by BAPCPA. Committee notes to several of the forms have been supplemented and now provide the reader with more detailed information. The forms and committee notes are accessible at http://www.uscourts.gov/bankform/index.html and on many bankruptcy courts’ Web sites, such as the Eastern District of Virginia’s “Bankruptcy Forms” link at http://www.vaeb.uscourts.gov/scripts/formsqry.exe.