§159 — Title 28 Judiciary and Judicial Procedure | U.S. Code

Summary

Court clerks must collect standardized statistics on individual debtors with mostly consumer debts who file for bankruptcy under chapters 7, 11, and 13. The Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts must compile and publish those statistics and must send Congress a written report with an analysis by July 1, 2008 and every year after. The report must be broken down by bankruptcy chapter and by district. It must include totals and categories of assets and debts from debtor schedules; current monthly income, average income, and average expenses from required filings; the amount of debt discharged (total debt minus mostly nondischargeable debt); average time from filing to case closing; details about reaffirmation agreements (how many cases had them, how many agreements were filed, how many debtors had no attorney, and how many were approved); chapter 13 specifics (valuation orders reducing secured claims, dismissals and dismissals for missed payments, refilings after dismissal, plan completions and number of plan changes before completion, and filings by the debtor in the prior 6-year period); numbers of creditor fines and any punitive damages for creditor misconduct; and counts of sanctions or damages under rule 9011 against the debtor’s lawyer.

Title 28, §159

Judiciary and Judicial Procedure — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The clerk of the district court, or the clerk of the bankruptcy court if one is certified pursuant to section 156(b) of this title, shall collect statistics regarding debtors who are individuals with primarily consumer debts seeking relief under chapters 7, 11, and 13 of title 11. Those statistics shall be in a standardized format prescribed by the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (referred to in this section as the “Director”).

(b)The Director shall—

(1)compile the statistics referred to in subsection (a);

(2)make the statistics available to the public; and

(3)not later than July 1, 2008, and annually thereafter, prepare, and submit to Congress a report concerning the information collected under subsection (a) that contains an analysis of the information.

(c)The compilation required under subsection (b) shall—

(1)be itemized, by chapter, with respect to title 11;

(2)be presented in the aggregate and for each district; and

(3)include information concerning—

(A)the total assets and total liabilities of the debtors described in subsection (a), and in each category of assets and liabilities, as reported in the schedules prescribed pursuant to section 2075 of this title and filed by debtors;

(B)the current monthly income, average income, and average expenses of debtors as reported on the schedules and statements that each such debtor files under section 521 and 1322 of title 11;

(C)the aggregate amount of debt discharged in cases filed during the reporting period, determined as the difference between the total amount of debt and obligations of a debtor reported on the schedules and the amount of such debt reported in categories which are predominantly nondischargeable;

(D)the average period of time between the date of the filing of the petition and the closing of the case for cases closed during the reporting period;

(E)for cases closed during the reporting period—

(i)the number of cases in which a reaffirmation agreement was filed; and

(ii)(I)the total number of reaffirmation agreements filed;

(II)of those cases in which a reaffirmation agreement was filed, the number of cases in which the debtor was not represented by an attorney; and

(III)of those cases in which a reaffirmation agreement was filed, the number of cases in which the reaffirmation agreement was approved by the court;

(F)with respect to cases filed under chapter 13 of title 11, for the reporting period—

(i)(I)the number of cases in which a final order was entered determining the value of property securing a claim in an amount less than the amount of the claim; and

(II)the number of final orders entered determining the value of property securing a claim;

(ii)the number of cases dismissed, the number of cases dismissed for failure to make payments under the plan, the number of cases refiled after dismissal, and the number of cases in which the plan was completed, separately itemized with respect to the number of modifications made before completion of the plan, if any; and

(iii)the number of cases in which the debtor filed another case during the 6-year period preceding the filing;

(G)the number of cases in which creditors were fined for misconduct and any amount of punitive damages awarded by the court for creditor misconduct; and

(H)the number of cases in which sanctions under rule 9011 of the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure were imposed against the debtor’s attorney or damages awarded under such Rule.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, referred to in subsec. (c)(3)(H), are set out in the Appendix to Title 11, Bankruptcy.

Amendments

2010—Subsec. (c)(3)(H). Pub. L. 111–327 inserted “the” after “against”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Pub. L. 109–8, title VI, § 601(c), Apr. 20, 2005, 119 Stat. 120, provided that: “The

Amendments

made by this section [enacting this section] shall take effect 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act [Apr. 20, 2005].”

§159 Bankruptcy statistics

Summary

Title 28, §159

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

Amendments

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Amendments

Citations & Metadata