The Internet Guide To Bankruptcy Law
Even in a booming economy, not every venture turns its promoters into Internet instantaires. There's still a down side to capitalism. And smart bankruptcy lawyers looking to save their clients' assets, would do well to turn to the Web as Melanie Putnam discovers.
While the Dow Jones Industrial Average flirts with new records every month, it's sobering to consider that according to statistics found at the American Bankruptcy Institute's Web site (http://www.abiworld.org/stats/newstatsfront.html) there were 361,205 total bankruptcy filings in the United States for the first three quarters of 1998. This includes personal and business bankruptcy filings, and the bulk of the filings are personal (350,859 in fact). The state of California leads with more 50,000 bankruptcies per quarter in 1998. In the teeth of immense and seemingly unstoppable bull market, capitalism is still claiming some victims.
Of all of the courts in the federal judicial branch, the bankruptcy courts have some of the most accessible information and links. Many of these courts are making their decisions through their Web sites. Pleadings, notices of filings, statistics, directories, and dictionaries populate the Web sites for those who want to visit bankruptcy-ville.
Primary sources
Federal Judiciary Home Page
http://www.uscourts.gov/
The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts' Federal Judiciary Home Page provides an overall link to information about the operation of the federal courts. The "Links" icon takes the researcher to a set of links to the active Web sites of the federal district courts and their bankruptcy units (http://www.uscourts.gov/allinks.html). The links spring from a colorful map of the federal circuits in the United States. As a general rule, bankruptcy courts offer local rules, forms, PACER Access information and address information. However, this should not be considered a complete list of resources by any means, as bankruptcy decisions are not yet widely available on the Web pages of the individual bankruptcy sites.
The Federal Judiciary Home Page maintains annotations about the bankruptcy courts and their procedures. There are also helpful documents written primarily for a non-professional audience such as "Understanding the U.S. Courts." Unfortunately, the otherwise helpful documents lack links to other bankruptcy sources in the home page. The general Web architecture is suspect as well. For instance, "Bankruptcy Basics" at http://www.uscourts.gov/bankbasic.pdf leads the researcher away from any links back into the Web page.
There is good news to report, though. The Official Bankruptcy Forms collection (http://www.uscourts.gov/bankform/index.html) gathers more than thirty forms in PDF format. The forms include "General Power of Attorney," "Discharge of a Debtor" and "Notice of Motion or Objection." The Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure are also available on the Federal Judiciary Home Page in PDF.
This Web page does not offer a complete directory to the U.S. courts. The one directory the site does have is the Directory of Electronic Public Access Services, which includes PACER Access information. Researchers will have to turn elsewhere to such pages as http://bankrupt.com/clerks.html or http://www.abiworld.org/chambers/courtdirs.html for more complete listings of bankruptcy court addresses and phone numbers.
United States Trustees Program
http://www.usdoj.gov/ust
The United States Trustee Program is responsible for overseeing the bankruptcy system. It is mandated by statute to monitor proceedings for fraudulent activity and to observe the operations of the bankruptcy caseload. Trustees have been assigned to 10 geographic districts of the United States.
The Web site provides ample data to feed the statistically starved at http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/statistics/statistics.html. Chapter 7 statistics are available by state from 1994 to 1997. Total bankruptcy filing statistics are organized by calendar year covering the years 1988 to 1997. Statistics can be viewed as well by the U.S. Trustee region. The site contains a list of all of the U.S. Trustee Program offices and the judicial districts covered by the program.
A Locator for Chapter 7, 12, and 13 Panel and Standing Trustees awaits the researcher. Because of its length, the U.S. Trustees Manual is downloadable in several parts. Only volumes 3, 4 and 5 can be downloaded at the moment. The text is available in either World Perfect 6.1 or PDF format. "Notable Bankruptcy Cases" contains summaries of cases concerning bankruptcy fraud or civil litigation.
Bankruptcy Noticing Center
http://www.ebnuscourts.com
Electronic Bankruptcy Noticing (EBN) is the "process by which bankruptcy notice information is transmitted electronically to creditors who have requested the service." The system has been created under the auspices of the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts and the administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. This is a secure method for creditors to receive notices from the bankruptcy courts. The site provides information about registration procedures.
National Bankruptcy Review Commission
http://www.nbrc.gov
Even though the National Bankruptcy Review Commission ceased to exist on Nov. 19, 1997 (per Public Law 103-394), the site can still be used for several valuable resources. An archive of their commission meeting reports. Reports from 1996 and 1997 are readable there. Fact sheets and press releases still contain some useful references.
Legal Information Institute-Bankruptcy Code and Rules and Regs
http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/bankruptcy.htm
Cornell provides easy access to the Bankruptcy Code through its topical Bankruptcy site. The Bankruptcy Code can be viewed either in total as Title 11 of the U.S. Code, or by each individual chapter of Title 11. Cornell has changed its method of access to the text of the U.S. Code. Instead of using the official edition off of the government produced CD-ROM, the Web site has switched to using the version offered by the U.S. House of Representatives http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/11.htm. This U.S. Code version can be updated. Cornell has also created a new update service that links to the U.S. House server. Several other new features accompany the update feature: a Notes feature, a link to Topical References and a link to the Parallel Authority to the CFR. These features can be viewed after locating a section of the U.S. Code.
Cornell's Legal Information Institute offers the most accessible version of the Federal Bankruptcy Rules of Procedure. The 1998-99 edition of the rules is current through August 1998. The text is in searchable Folio format. Word searches are easy; each word is captured in the Folio-style indexing (where all hits on the word are known). This is the place for the researcher who wants to sift through the text of the rules by word searches without expense. In addition, the other advantage is that the text does not have to be downloaded before viewing. The relevant Code of Federal Regulations section Title 28, Part 58 is at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/ctr/28p58.htm and links directly from Cornell's Bankruptcy topic page. Please note: the site will not swear to the accuracy of its CFR parallel authority link, however, disclaiming "the service is automated and the information is volatile."
U.S. House of Representatives-Federal Bankruptcy Codes and Rules
http://uscode.house.gov/title_11.htm
The U.S. House of Representative Law Revision Counsel has created a U.S. Code site with multiple methods of access. The code is searchable or downloadable. The Appendix of Title 11 of the U.S. Code contains the Federal Bankruptcy Rules of Procedure. A downloadable version of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code is available from the U.S. House of Representatives U.S. Code. It downloads into Microsoft Word for Windows format. Title 11 is currently updated through Jan. 28, 1998. The researcher should be prepared to download the full text of the rules here. Once the selection is made, the text begins a download procedure. There is no opportunity to view the rules in advance of the download trigger. The researcher should avoid the now defunct link to the House gopher address. The now-deceased rodent once provided the text of the bankruptcy rules. It no longer works, having been replaced by the House Web page of the U.S. Code.
Other Bankruptcy-Related Web Sites
American Bankruptcy Institute
http://www.abiworld.org/
The American Bankruptcy Institute's Web site is the class act in the bankruptcy law field on the Internet. Even visiting, non-member researchers will gain a strong grasp of the latest happenings in the bankruptcy world from here. The non-member is allowed to access an enormous amount of news, data and other information. Legislative news provides not only the news, but a framed link to Thomas at the Library of Congress at http://thomas.loc.gov to link the reader immediately to the text of the legislation. The search for bankruptcy-related federal legislation has already been done for you. Now that's service!
The Judges' Chambers is another valuable section of the ABI Web page. Find it at http://www.abiworld.org/chambers/newchambers.html. An extensive set of links to bankruptcy court decisions is available. The section of "Links to Opinions at U.S. Bankruptcy Court Sites" organizes all active links to the bankruptcy court decisions on the Web. Summaries of the latest bankruptcy cases can also be read here. The Directory to the Bankruptcy Courts staff is a comprehensive source, including the clerk of the court attached to the bankruptcy court.
The statistical data is another bankruptcy collection with both depth and breadth. The data is first compiled by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and then dressed up to meet company by ABI to provide a sleek and elegant presentation of rather humdrum data. Find it at http://www.abiworld.org/stats/stats.html. In some instances, the bankruptcy data can be searched back to 1980, while other data starts with the 1990s. Data can be viewed by state, by judicial district, by metropolitan statistical area, and by chapter among others. The site promises to have more charts and graphs soon.
InterNet Bankruptcy Library: Worldwide Troubled Company Resources
http://bankrupt.com
The Internet Bankruptcy Library is the Web site of the Bankruptcy Creditors' Service, Inc. and Beard Group, Inc. The home base is Princeton, New Jersey. Both Web site hosts are involved in the publication of many bankruptcy-related services and publications. Reference to their output is liberally placed throughout the Internet Bankruptcy Library. Some of their work may appear in the form of snippets from their newsletter, or lists of their publications and subscription rates. Samples are read-only. And be forewarned— there's no dodging those annoying and all-too-common pop-up advertisements. (Are they the craft of out-of-work spammers looking for new ways to make Web surfers cranky?)
So much for the gripes. On the plus side, the InterNet Bankruptcy Library has recently introduced a new resource for the bankruptcy researcher. Its On-Line Directory of Bankruptcy Clerks has shown itself to be a big hit (http://bankrupt.com/clerks.html). The list runs long and alphabetically by state, not by federal circuit. Information at this time remains brief.
Pacer Access numbers are also given, along with the bankruptcy court's circuit assignment and its U.S. Trustee Region. Few Web links to bankruptcy court pages appear as part of this directory in comparison to the known live links provided by the Federal Judiciary Home Page. Another useful directory compiled at this site is the Worldwide Directory of Bankruptcy and Insolvency Professionals. The material for the United States is more complete than the other sections. European, Canadian and Australian information are somewhat developed. There is room for potential growth here.
Other parts of the Web site are dated. For instance, the list of "U.S. Companies Reorganizing Under Chapter 11" have dates from 1995 through 1998 at http://bankrupt.com/chap11.html No data from the new year yet appears. The Bankruptcy Petitions are presented raw data style at http://bankrupt.com/Bankruptcy_Petitions. The researcher needs to select a company file from an alphabetical directory. These are dated from the years 1995 through 1997. The Hot News section contains news only as current as 1997. Statistical data is not comprehensive here either. Distressed Securities Data are selections of data compiled by a company located in Boston, called New Generation Research, Inc. at http://bankrupt.com/newgen.html . For more complete and timely data, researchers must consult their annual paper publications.
The Bankruptcy Yearbook and Almanac Commercial Law League of America
http://www.clla.org
To keep up on the latest bankruptcy legislation, turn to the Commercial Law League of America&146;s Web site. From the top, the "oldest creditors' rights organization" knows how to organize its bounty of information. Legislative references are front and center on the home page. Links are available to the latest bankruptcy-related legislation. CLLA offers its own section by section analysis of important congressional documents. Commentary by CLLA is also provided on proposed bankruptcy rule changes or recent modifications.
LoPucki's Bankruptcy Research Database (Ch. 11 Cases)
http://teddy.law.cornell.edu:8090/lopucki.htm
The Judicial Statistics site at Cornell at http://teddy.law.cornell.edu:8090/questata.htm offers a data set of Federal Bankruptcy Cases. Lynn M. LoPucki allows others to use an abbreviated version of his Bankruptcy Research Database. The data at this site contains cases filed in the Bankruptcy Courts of the U.S. from Jan. 1980 to Dec. 1997. Searches can be defined by time period, city, by type of disposition of the case (e.g. dismissed), by type of claim (e.g. pension claim) and other defining features.
LegalLink
http://www.legallink.com
Legal Link names itself as a provider of the latest information on bankruptcies and class action cases. The site is sponsored by Poorman-Douglas Corporation. Bankruptcy filings, notices, and news are compiled here. The Bankruptcy Notices section is the most complete section. The site describes the section as a "searchable database of bankruptcy case notices." However, it does not have a separate search engine. The section pulls in a long list of hundred of notices arranged alphabetically. The researcher can scroll down the long list. The notices include full text documents from 1994 through 1997. Some examples include a Notice of Public Sale, a Notice of Plan to Liquidate, and a Sale of Assets Notice.
The Bankruptcy LawFinder
http://www.agin.com/lawfind/
Attorney Warren E. Agin, an attorney in Boston, does a fine job of compiling all of the bankruptcy law resources into one logically connected set of links. Everything that one needs is there: links to all of the primary sources of law (back to Cornell or the U.S. House), government resources, products and services needed by the bankruptcy professional, an online bookstore, FAQs and other bankruptcy sites. The researcher is guaranteed to reach the right resources quickly from this spot.
National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys
http://205.178.60.190/nacba
The National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys has 1300 members nationally, who work to protect the rights of the consumer debtor. The site has a members-only side and a public side. The public visitor may view the association analysis of current federal legislation and look at a few summaries of bankruptcy cases. Members receive the advantage of a conferencing system and access to a Legislative Action Center.
Bernstein's Dictionary of Bankruptcy Terminology
http://www.bernsteinlaw.com/publications/bankrupt.html
The Pittsburgh law offices of Bernstein, Bernstein et. al. "explains the most commonly used bankruptcy terminology" with its Dictionary of Bankruptcy Terminology. The dictionary is concise with brief definitions on the trade talk of bankruptcy specialists. Cross-references are made to related terms, but these references are not linked to words within the document. The researcher is prompted to other definitions by noticing the bolded words, which means they are defined within the document.
ABC Companies, Inc. Bankruptcy Listing
http://www.abccompanies.com/resource/bankrupt.html
The ABC Companies, Inc. (American Bureau of Collections) is headquartered in Buffalo, New York, beginning there as a one-man operation. The Web site serves up a direct hit for the bankruptcy researcher needing to see whether there has been a recent filing by a U.S. corporation. "Welcome to the largest free U.S. Corporate Bankruptcy List on the Internet." The listings start with Jan. 1998 and are current through today. The lists are accessible through an alphabetical arrangement by company name. The chart provides the company name, the location, the chapter of the bankruptcy code under which the company filed, and the date of the filing. It is thus far an impressive listing, neatly organized and very current. The site offers an e-mail distribution of a weekly list of U.S. corporate bankruptcies. A request to subscribe can be made from a form at the Bankruptcy Listing page.
World Internet Insolvency and Bankruptcy Resources
http://www.insolvency.com
For a worldview of bankruptcy resources of all kinds, the researcher may find some useful links through the World Internet Insolvency and Bankruptcy Resources site. The site's categories of links include lists of companies and assets for sale, auctions, auctioneers, government auctions (under which the United States has a strong list of resources), company information, credit and debt collection agencies worldwide, and links to law firms, bankruptcy specialists and insolvency lawyers worldwide. Links to the United States appear to be the strongest, with European, Canadian and the United Kingdom sites trailing in second place. Hieros Gamos' collection of bankruptcy materials at http://www.hg.org/bankrupt.html will prove more satisfactory for links to foreign bankruptcy law materials for such nations as Japan, Mexico, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom.
National Bankruptcy Web Sites
http://www.washlaw.edu/bankruptcy
If only to mention that Washlaw has a new Web address that easier to remember ( http://www.washlaw.edu Washlaw) does have a set of bankruptcy links entitled "National Bankruptcy Web Sites." The sites have brief notations following the link title. It is a good starting point for basic bankruptcy research on the Web.
Mailing Lists
BANKRLAW
The Bankruptcy Law Listserv is located at BANKRLAW@polecat.law.indiana.edu The discussion group is for the academic, the practitioner, or the accountant. Archives can be read at Findlaw. To subscribe, send the message subscribe bankrlaw Firstname Lastname to listproc@polecat.law.indiana.edu
While the Dow Jones Industrial Average flirts with new records every month, it's sobering to consider that according to statistics found at the American Bankruptcy Institute's Web site (http://www.abiworld.org/stats/newstatsfront.html) there were 361,205 total bankruptcy filings in the United States for the first three quarters of 1998. This includes personal and business bankruptcy filings, and the bulk of the filings are personal (350,859 in fact). The state of California leads with more 50,000 bankruptcies per quarter in 1998. In the teeth of immense and seemingly unstoppable bull market, capitalism is still claiming some victims.
Of all of the courts in the federal judicial branch, the bankruptcy courts have some of the most accessible information and links. Many of these courts are making their decisions through their Web sites. Pleadings, notices of filings, statistics, directories, and dictionaries populate the Web sites for those who want to visit bankruptcy-ville.
Primary sources
Federal Judiciary Home Page
http://www.uscourts.gov/
The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts' Federal Judiciary Home Page provides an overall link to information about the operation of the federal courts. The "Links" icon takes the researcher to a set of links to the active Web sites of the federal district courts and their bankruptcy units (http://www.uscourts.gov/allinks.html). The links spring from a colorful map of the federal circuits in the United States. As a general rule, bankruptcy courts offer local rules, forms, PACER Access information and address information. However, this should not be considered a complete list of resources by any means, as bankruptcy decisions are not yet widely available on the Web pages of the individual bankruptcy sites.
The Federal Judiciary Home Page maintains annotations about the bankruptcy courts and their procedures. There are also helpful documents written primarily for a non-professional audience such as "Understanding the U.S. Courts." Unfortunately, the otherwise helpful documents lack links to other bankruptcy sources in the home page. The general Web architecture is suspect as well. For instance, "Bankruptcy Basics" at http://www.uscourts.gov/bankbasic.pdf leads the researcher away from any links back into the Web page.
There is good news to report, though. The Official Bankruptcy Forms collection (http://www.uscourts.gov/bankform/index.html) gathers more than thirty forms in PDF format. The forms include "General Power of Attorney," "Discharge of a Debtor" and "Notice of Motion or Objection." The Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure are also available on the Federal Judiciary Home Page in PDF.
This Web page does not offer a complete directory to the U.S. courts. The one directory the site does have is the Directory of Electronic Public Access Services, which includes PACER Access information. Researchers will have to turn elsewhere to such pages as http://bankrupt.com/clerks.html or http://www.abiworld.org/chambers/courtdirs.html for more complete listings of bankruptcy court addresses and phone numbers.
United States Trustees Program
http://www.usdoj.gov/ust
The United States Trustee Program is responsible for overseeing the bankruptcy system. It is mandated by statute to monitor proceedings for fraudulent activity and to observe the operations of the bankruptcy caseload. Trustees have been assigned to 10 geographic districts of the United States.
The Web site provides ample data to feed the statistically starved at http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/statistics/statistics.html. Chapter 7 statistics are available by state from 1994 to 1997. Total bankruptcy filing statistics are organized by calendar year covering the years 1988 to 1997. Statistics can be viewed as well by the U.S. Trustee region. The site contains a list of all of the U.S. Trustee Program offices and the judicial districts covered by the program.
A Locator for Chapter 7, 12, and 13 Panel and Standing Trustees awaits the researcher. Because of its length, the U.S. Trustees Manual is downloadable in several parts. Only volumes 3, 4 and 5 can be downloaded at the moment. The text is available in either World Perfect 6.1 or PDF format. "Notable Bankruptcy Cases" contains summaries of cases concerning bankruptcy fraud or civil litigation.
Bankruptcy Noticing Center
http://www.ebnuscourts.com
Electronic Bankruptcy Noticing (EBN) is the "process by which bankruptcy notice information is transmitted electronically to creditors who have requested the service." The system has been created under the auspices of the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts and the administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. This is a secure method for creditors to receive notices from the bankruptcy courts. The site provides information about registration procedures.
National Bankruptcy Review Commission
http://www.nbrc.gov
Even though the National Bankruptcy Review Commission ceased to exist on Nov. 19, 1997 (per Public Law 103-394), the site can still be used for several valuable resources. An archive of their commission meeting reports. Reports from 1996 and 1997 are readable there. Fact sheets and press releases still contain some useful references.
Legal Information Institute-Bankruptcy Code and Rules and Regs
http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/bankruptcy.htm
Cornell provides easy access to the Bankruptcy Code through its topical Bankruptcy site. The Bankruptcy Code can be viewed either in total as Title 11 of the U.S. Code, or by each individual chapter of Title 11. Cornell has changed its method of access to the text of the U.S. Code. Instead of using the official edition off of the government produced CD-ROM, the Web site has switched to using the version offered by the U.S. House of Representatives http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/11.htm. This U.S. Code version can be updated. Cornell has also created a new update service that links to the U.S. House server. Several other new features accompany the update feature: a Notes feature, a link to Topical References and a link to the Parallel Authority to the CFR. These features can be viewed after locating a section of the U.S. Code.
Cornell's Legal Information Institute offers the most accessible version of the Federal Bankruptcy Rules of Procedure. The 1998-99 edition of the rules is current through August 1998. The text is in searchable Folio format. Word searches are easy; each word is captured in the Folio-style indexing (where all hits on the word are known). This is the place for the researcher who wants to sift through the text of the rules by word searches without expense. In addition, the other advantage is that the text does not have to be downloaded before viewing. The relevant Code of Federal Regulations section Title 28, Part 58 is at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/ctr/28p58.htm and links directly from Cornell's Bankruptcy topic page. Please note: the site will not swear to the accuracy of its CFR parallel authority link, however, disclaiming "the service is automated and the information is volatile."
U.S. House of Representatives-Federal Bankruptcy Codes and Rules
http://uscode.house.gov/title_11.htm
The U.S. House of Representative Law Revision Counsel has created a U.S. Code site with multiple methods of access. The code is searchable or downloadable. The Appendix of Title 11 of the U.S. Code contains the Federal Bankruptcy Rules of Procedure. A downloadable version of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code is available from the U.S. House of Representatives U.S. Code. It downloads into Microsoft Word for Windows format. Title 11 is currently updated through Jan. 28, 1998. The researcher should be prepared to download the full text of the rules here. Once the selection is made, the text begins a download procedure. There is no opportunity to view the rules in advance of the download trigger. The researcher should avoid the now defunct link to the House gopher address. The now-deceased rodent once provided the text of the bankruptcy rules. It no longer works, having been replaced by the House Web page of the U.S. Code.
Other Bankruptcy-Related Web Sites
American Bankruptcy Institute
http://www.abiworld.org/
The American Bankruptcy Institute's Web site is the class act in the bankruptcy law field on the Internet. Even visiting, non-member researchers will gain a strong grasp of the latest happenings in the bankruptcy world from here. The non-member is allowed to access an enormous amount of news, data and other information. Legislative news provides not only the news, but a framed link to Thomas at the Library of Congress at http://thomas.loc.gov to link the reader immediately to the text of the legislation. The search for bankruptcy-related federal legislation has already been done for you. Now that's service!
The Judges' Chambers is another valuable section of the ABI Web page. Find it at http://www.abiworld.org/chambers/newchambers.html. An extensive set of links to bankruptcy court decisions is available. The section of "Links to Opinions at U.S. Bankruptcy Court Sites" organizes all active links to the bankruptcy court decisions on the Web. Summaries of the latest bankruptcy cases can also be read here. The Directory to the Bankruptcy Courts staff is a comprehensive source, including the clerk of the court attached to the bankruptcy court.
The statistical data is another bankruptcy collection with both depth and breadth. The data is first compiled by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and then dressed up to meet company by ABI to provide a sleek and elegant presentation of rather humdrum data. Find it at http://www.abiworld.org/stats/stats.html. In some instances, the bankruptcy data can be searched back to 1980, while other data starts with the 1990s. Data can be viewed by state, by judicial district, by metropolitan statistical area, and by chapter among others. The site promises to have more charts and graphs soon.
InterNet Bankruptcy Library: Worldwide Troubled Company Resources
http://bankrupt.com
The Internet Bankruptcy Library is the Web site of the Bankruptcy Creditors' Service, Inc. and Beard Group, Inc. The home base is Princeton, New Jersey. Both Web site hosts are involved in the publication of many bankruptcy-related services and publications. Reference to their output is liberally placed throughout the Internet Bankruptcy Library. Some of their work may appear in the form of snippets from their newsletter, or lists of their publications and subscription rates. Samples are read-only. And be forewarned— there's no dodging those annoying and all-too-common pop-up advertisements. (Are they the craft of out-of-work spammers looking for new ways to make Web surfers cranky?)
So much for the gripes. On the plus side, the InterNet Bankruptcy Library has recently introduced a new resource for the bankruptcy researcher. Its On-Line Directory of Bankruptcy Clerks has shown itself to be a big hit (http://bankrupt.com/clerks.html). The list runs long and alphabetically by state, not by federal circuit. Information at this time remains brief.
Pacer Access numbers are also given, along with the bankruptcy court's circuit assignment and its U.S. Trustee Region. Few Web links to bankruptcy court pages appear as part of this directory in comparison to the known live links provided by the Federal Judiciary Home Page. Another useful directory compiled at this site is the Worldwide Directory of Bankruptcy and Insolvency Professionals. The material for the United States is more complete than the other sections. European, Canadian and Australian information are somewhat developed. There is room for potential growth here.
Other parts of the Web site are dated. For instance, the list of "U.S. Companies Reorganizing Under Chapter 11" have dates from 1995 through 1998 at http://bankrupt.com/chap11.html No data from the new year yet appears. The Bankruptcy Petitions are presented raw data style at http://bankrupt.com/Bankruptcy_Petitions. The researcher needs to select a company file from an alphabetical directory. These are dated from the years 1995 through 1997. The Hot News section contains news only as current as 1997. Statistical data is not comprehensive here either. Distressed Securities Data are selections of data compiled by a company located in Boston, called New Generation Research, Inc. at http://bankrupt.com/newgen.html . For more complete and timely data, researchers must consult their annual paper publications.
The Bankruptcy Yearbook and Almanac Commercial Law League of America
http://www.clla.org
To keep up on the latest bankruptcy legislation, turn to the Commercial Law League of America&146;s Web site. From the top, the "oldest creditors' rights organization" knows how to organize its bounty of information. Legislative references are front and center on the home page. Links are available to the latest bankruptcy-related legislation. CLLA offers its own section by section analysis of important congressional documents. Commentary by CLLA is also provided on proposed bankruptcy rule changes or recent modifications.
LoPucki's Bankruptcy Research Database (Ch. 11 Cases)
http://teddy.law.cornell.edu:8090/lopucki.htm
The Judicial Statistics site at Cornell at http://teddy.law.cornell.edu:8090/questata.htm offers a data set of Federal Bankruptcy Cases. Lynn M. LoPucki allows others to use an abbreviated version of his Bankruptcy Research Database. The data at this site contains cases filed in the Bankruptcy Courts of the U.S. from Jan. 1980 to Dec. 1997. Searches can be defined by time period, city, by type of disposition of the case (e.g. dismissed), by type of claim (e.g. pension claim) and other defining features.
LegalLink
http://www.legallink.com
Legal Link names itself as a provider of the latest information on bankruptcies and class action cases. The site is sponsored by Poorman-Douglas Corporation. Bankruptcy filings, notices, and news are compiled here. The Bankruptcy Notices section is the most complete section. The site describes the section as a "searchable database of bankruptcy case notices." However, it does not have a separate search engine. The section pulls in a long list of hundred of notices arranged alphabetically. The researcher can scroll down the long list. The notices include full text documents from 1994 through 1997. Some examples include a Notice of Public Sale, a Notice of Plan to Liquidate, and a Sale of Assets Notice.
The Bankruptcy LawFinder
http://www.agin.com/lawfind/
Attorney Warren E. Agin, an attorney in Boston, does a fine job of compiling all of the bankruptcy law resources into one logically connected set of links. Everything that one needs is there: links to all of the primary sources of law (back to Cornell or the U.S. House), government resources, products and services needed by the bankruptcy professional, an online bookstore, FAQs and other bankruptcy sites. The researcher is guaranteed to reach the right resources quickly from this spot.
National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys
http://205.178.60.190/nacba
The National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys has 1300 members nationally, who work to protect the rights of the consumer debtor. The site has a members-only side and a public side. The public visitor may view the association analysis of current federal legislation and look at a few summaries of bankruptcy cases. Members receive the advantage of a conferencing system and access to a Legislative Action Center.
Bernstein's Dictionary of Bankruptcy Terminology
http://www.bernsteinlaw.com/publications/bankrupt.html
The Pittsburgh law offices of Bernstein, Bernstein et. al. "explains the most commonly used bankruptcy terminology" with its Dictionary of Bankruptcy Terminology. The dictionary is concise with brief definitions on the trade talk of bankruptcy specialists. Cross-references are made to related terms, but these references are not linked to words within the document. The researcher is prompted to other definitions by noticing the bolded words, which means they are defined within the document.
ABC Companies, Inc. Bankruptcy Listing
http://www.abccompanies.com/resource/bankrupt.html
The ABC Companies, Inc. (American Bureau of Collections) is headquartered in Buffalo, New York, beginning there as a one-man operation. The Web site serves up a direct hit for the bankruptcy researcher needing to see whether there has been a recent filing by a U.S. corporation. "Welcome to the largest free U.S. Corporate Bankruptcy List on the Internet." The listings start with Jan. 1998 and are current through today. The lists are accessible through an alphabetical arrangement by company name. The chart provides the company name, the location, the chapter of the bankruptcy code under which the company filed, and the date of the filing. It is thus far an impressive listing, neatly organized and very current. The site offers an e-mail distribution of a weekly list of U.S. corporate bankruptcies. A request to subscribe can be made from a form at the Bankruptcy Listing page.
World Internet Insolvency and Bankruptcy Resources
http://www.insolvency.com
For a worldview of bankruptcy resources of all kinds, the researcher may find some useful links through the World Internet Insolvency and Bankruptcy Resources site. The site's categories of links include lists of companies and assets for sale, auctions, auctioneers, government auctions (under which the United States has a strong list of resources), company information, credit and debt collection agencies worldwide, and links to law firms, bankruptcy specialists and insolvency lawyers worldwide. Links to the United States appear to be the strongest, with European, Canadian and the United Kingdom sites trailing in second place. Hieros Gamos' collection of bankruptcy materials at http://www.hg.org/bankrupt.html will prove more satisfactory for links to foreign bankruptcy law materials for such nations as Japan, Mexico, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom.
National Bankruptcy Web Sites
http://www.washlaw.edu/bankruptcy
If only to mention that Washlaw has a new Web address that easier to remember ( http://www.washlaw.edu Washlaw) does have a set of bankruptcy links entitled "National Bankruptcy Web Sites." The sites have brief notations following the link title. It is a good starting point for basic bankruptcy research on the Web.
Mailing Lists
BANKRLAW
The Bankruptcy Law Listserv is located at BANKRLAW@polecat.law.indiana.edu The discussion group is for the academic, the practitioner, or the accountant. Archives can be read at Findlaw. To subscribe, send the message subscribe bankrlaw Firstname Lastname to listproc@polecat.law.indiana.edu
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