Petitions since 1999, schedules, court orders, chapter 11 plans, and chapter 13 plans are available in the TIFF format. Soon the court will save the documents as Adobe Acrobat PDF files. Users can download the viewer for PDF documents for free from the Internet. Documents are made available to the public on WebPacer the business day after they are received and imaged by the court. Users can use Court Calendar to determine court times and parties.
Some judges post partial calendars several months in advance.
Eleven of the district's 21 bankruptcy judges post tentative rulings prior to a hearing. With the use of tentative rulings, prevailing parties do not have to attend the scheduled hearing, thereby saving themselves considerable time and expense. The WebPacer system was designed to harmonize service for the public, attorneys, judges, clerk's office, court staff, trustees, and bankruptcy administrators of the Central District of California, where approximately 10 percent of the nation's bankruptcy filings are made. This tremendously busy court receives approximately 120,000 bankruptcy filings per year and employs more than 400 deputy clerks. The Los Angeles division alone has more than 150,000 active files and employs 26 records clerks who process approximately 75,000 public requests for files each year.