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Key Facts
- Federal level: Bankruptcy dockets and filed papers are generally public records under 11 U.S.C. § 107, subject to statutory protection, sealing, and privacy rules.
- Federal level: PACER provides online access to federal bankruptcy case and docket information, while clerk’s offices provide public-access terminals.
- Federal level: A docket records the procedural history; individual docket entries link to filings such as petitions, motions, notices, and orders when electronically available.
- Federal level: Bankruptcy courts do not report case information to consumer reporting agencies and do not verify the contents of credit reports.
Bankruptcy records are the official docket and filed documents maintained by the federal court handling a case. They can show when the case began, its chapter, parties, filings, hearings, orders, disposition, and other procedural events.
A record answers a different question from a general explanation of bankruptcy law. The law describes the governing system; the docket shows what was filed and ordered in one case.
Why bankruptcy records are usually public
Section 107(a) of the Bankruptcy Code provides that filed papers and bankruptcy-court dockets are public records open to examination at reasonable times without charge, subject to section 107’s exceptions and section 112. Subsections 107(b) and (c) authorize protection for specified confidential, scandalous, defamatory, and identity-risk information.
Public access therefore does not mean that every item is remotely available without restriction. A document can be sealed, redacted, restricted from remote access, or protected by statute or court order.
Finding a case in PACER
PACER is the federal judiciary’s Public Access to Court Electronic Records service. An account holder can search and locate appellate, district, and bankruptcy case and docket information.
The PACER Case Locator supports nationwide searching when the specific court is unknown and updates daily at midnight. When the court is known, its PACER system provides real-time access to available case documents.
Useful search identifiers include a case number, party name, and the court where the case was filed. Similar names can produce multiple results, so court, chapter, filing date, and case number help distinguish records.
Reading a bankruptcy docket
The docket is the court’s chronological index of case events. Entries identify filing dates, document numbers, filing parties, descriptions, hearings, and orders, while linked images contain the filed documents when available.
The petition begins the case, schedules describe reported assets, debts, income, expenses, and other information, and later entries can include trustee notices, creditor filings, motions, objections, and court orders. An allegation in a filing is not the same as a judicial finding, and an order may later be amended, vacated, or appealed.
A bankruptcy status label needs context. A case can be pending, closed, dismissed, converted, reopened, or associated with a discharge, and those events do not mean the same thing.
PACER fees and free access
As of August 8, 2026, PACER charges $0.10 per page, with a $3 cap for most individual documents and case-specific reports; the cap does not apply to transcripts, searches, or non-case-specific reports. Charges of $30 or less in a quarterly billing cycle are waived.
Court opinions are free through PACER, and courthouse public-access terminals provide free viewing. Parties and attorneys of record also receive one free electronic copy of filed documents through qualifying notices of electronic filing or docket activity.
PACER has announced that on January 1, 2027, the per-page fee will temporarily rise to $0.12 and the quarterly waiver threshold will rise to $40. The current fee schedule controls until that effective date.
Older and paper bankruptcy files
Many cases created before 1999 remain available only in paper form. The court where the case was filed can explain whether a file remains with the clerk or is stored at a Federal Records Center.
The National Archives states that federal court records less than 15 years old generally remain with the individual courts. Closed files physically stored at Federal Records Centers can be ordered online or by mail or fax under the Archives’ procedures.
Privacy and redaction
Bankruptcy Rule 9037 limits personal identifiers in public filings. Unless the court orders otherwise, filings generally show only the last four digits of Social Security, taxpayer-identification, and financial-account numbers, the year of birth, and a minor’s initials.
The rule permits sealed unredacted copies, additional protective orders, and motions to redact previously filed protected identifiers. The filer, not the clerk, bears the primary responsibility for redaction under the rule.
Court records are not credit reports
The federal judiciary states that bankruptcy courts do not report or provide case information to consumer reporting agencies. Courts also do not verify or validate information appearing in a consumer credit report.
Credit-report data may be gathered independently from public court records, but correcting a court docket and disputing a credit-report entry are different processes governed by different authorities. The official court page directs credit-report disputes to information from the Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
What a record can and cannot establish
A docket can establish that a document was filed or an order entered. It does not necessarily establish that every statement inside a party’s filing is true.
The clearest case picture usually comes from reading the docket sequence together with the operative orders, rather than relying on one petition, search result, or status label in isolation.
