Bankruptcy is a federal court procedure designed to help both individuals and businesses eliminate debts they cannot fully repay as well as help creditors receive some payment in an equitable manner. The filing of a bankruptcy petition in most cases operates as an “automatic stay” that essentially prohibits most creditors from taking any action to attempt to collect a debt pending the resolution of the bankruptcy proceeding. Individuals usually file for bankruptcy under one of two chapters— Chapter 7 or 13—of the Bankruptcy Code. Under Chapter 7, the filer’s eligible nonexempt assets are reduced to cash and distributed to creditors in accordance with distribution priorities and procedures set out in the Bankruptcy Code. Under Chapter 13, filers submit a repayment plan to the court agreeing to pay part or all of their debts over time, usually 3 to 5 years. Upon the successful completion of both Chapter 7 and 13 cases, the filer’s personal liability for eligible debts is discharged at the end of the bankruptcy process, and creditors may take no further action against the individual to collect any unpaid portion of the debt. The U.S. bankruptcy system is complex and involves entities in both the judicial and executive branches of government (see fig. 1). Within the judicial branch, 90 federal bankruptcy districts have jurisdiction over bankruptcy cases. The Judicial Conference of the United States (Judicial Conference) serves as the judiciary’s principal policy- making body and recommends national policies and legislation on all aspects of federal judicial administration. AOUSC is an agency within the judicial branch and serves as the central support entity for federal courts, including bankruptcy courts, providing a wide range of administrative, legal, financial, management, and information technology functions. The Director of AOUSC is supervised by the Judicial Conference. AOUSC has developed and supports nationwide data systems to manage and maintain information on bankruptcy cases, but these systems are largely operated, managed, and maintained at the local courts. Within the executive branch, the Trustee Program, a component of the Department of Justice, oversees the administration of most bankruptcy cases. The program consists of the Executive Office for U.S. Trustees, which provides general policy and legal guidance, oversees operations, and handles administrative functions, as well as 95 field offices and 21 U.S. Trustees—federal officials charged with supervising the administration of federal bankruptcy cases. The Trustee Program appoints and supervises approximately 1,400 private trustees, who are not government employees, to administer bankruptcy estates and distribute payments to creditors. To document their administration of cases, private trustees file “final reports” with the bankruptcy courts and submit them to the U.S. Trustees. The procedural aspects of the bankruptcy process are governed by the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure (Bankruptcy Rules) and local rules of each bankruptcy court. The Bankruptcy Rules contain a set of official forms for use in bankruptcy cases. The document filed by the debtor to open a bankruptcy case is known as the voluntary petition, which the debtor may amend (make changes to) at any time before the case is closed. Most debtors who file for bankruptcy use an attorney, but some debtors represent themselves without the aid of an attorney and are referred to as pro se debtors. Most documents associated with bankruptcy cases are public records and, with certain exceptions, the information contained in a bankruptcy file is publicly accessible. The Bankruptcy Reform Act was signed into law on April 20, 2005, and most of its provisions became effective on October 17, 2005. The act made substantial changes to the Bankruptcy Code, significantly changing consumer bankruptcy practice. It also sought to address, at least in part, long-standing concerns about perceived shortcomings of the bankruptcy data system that had been identified by the National Bankruptcy Review Commission and other parties. The act required the federal judiciary to collect and report certain new aggregate statistics. It also required the Attorney General (who delegated the authority to the Trustee Program) to issue rules requiring that private trustees submit uniform final reports containing prescribed information on individual bankruptcy cases. AOUSC publishes certain aggregate statistics related to the numbers of bankruptcy filings. Documents within individual case files contain a range of information, but few data exist on the causes of bankruptcy and the characteristics of bankruptcy filers. There has been long-standing recognition that much of the data in the bankruptcy system may not be accurate—largely because much of the data is self-reported by debtors in the official bankruptcy forms—although these data are sufficiently reliable for the purposes of initiating a bankruptcy case. Several factors create challenges to improving the bankruptcy data system. Most notably, facilitating public access to data in bankruptcy files—which can contain highly personal information—can raise privacy and security concerns. The federal judiciary also has noted that collection of demographic or other additional data is not its mission and would require added resources; further, the judicial process may not be well suited to capturing certain types of information, such as the reasons a consumer files for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy case files are publicly accessible, but not in a format that readily allows for compilation and analysis. The U.S. Party/Case Index was designed to allow nationwide searches of individual bankruptcy cases, and although it serves that function, its search parameters are limited and the results do not include much of the data held by the system. The judiciary reports statistics on the number of bankruptcy filings and collects a variety of financial information from individual filers in the official bankruptcy forms. However, relatively little information is available on the characteristics of people who file for bankruptcy, the factors that contributed to their bankruptcy filings, or the outcomes of their cases. AOUSC generates monthly, quarterly, and annual statistics on the numbers of bankruptcy filings. Prior to 2008, these tables were the only statistics the judiciary released on bankruptcies. (The new statistics required under the Bankruptcy Reform Act are discussed later in this report.) The filing statistics include tables that show the number of bankruptcy cases filed for either a 12-, 3-, or 1-month period, broken down by several factors: status of case (commenced, terminated, and pending), circumstance of filing (voluntary or involuntary), nature of debt (including business or nonbusiness), median time interval from filing the petition to disposition, and adversary proceedings (commenced, terminated, and pending). Most of these tables include the data broken out by each judicial district as well as by bankruptcy chapter; some of the tables include statistics by individual bankruptcy court or county. AOUSC strives to publicly release the quarterly and annual statistics 2 to 3 months after the close of each quarter. Certain additional statistics used internally are not publicly released, such as the number of cases assigned to each judge and numbers of trials in bankruptcy courts. The judiciary generates these statistics largely to meet its statutory requirements to produce statistical reports for Congress and the public on the business transacted by the bankruptcy courts. Data on numbers of bankruptcy filings help the judiciary determine the need for resources to operate the courts, forecast future needs, and formulate the judiciary’s congressional budget requests. For example, data on the number of cases opened (or filed) are one of the principal bases for determining the number of bankruptcy judges that may be needed. The bankruptcy statistics also receive wide attention outside of the judiciary. For example, AOUSC’s statistical tables on the numbers of bankruptcy filings are used by financial analysts and other government agencies as a lagging economic indicator and reported by the mass media as a measure of the financial health of American consumers. The files of individual bankruptcy cases—which are public documents— contain significant amounts of information. For example, the voluntary petition used to initiate a consumer bankruptcy filing includes, among other things, the debtor’s name and address, the estimated number of creditors, and the estimated amount of the debtor’s assets and liabilities. Other schedules and forms require the debtor to provide information on, among other things: real property (real estate), personal property (such as cash, stocks, bonds, and household items), secured debts (such as mortgages and liens), unsecured debts (such as credit card debt and tax obligations), monthly income, and itemized monthly expenses. Bankruptcy case files also include other information filed with the courts. For example, the file may contain a Chapter 13 repayment plan, which identifies specific creditors and the amount of their claims, the monthly repayment amount, the interest rate that the debtor and creditors have agreed on, and the duration of the repayment plan. Similarly, case files may include reaffirmation agreements, including the amount and characteristics of debt being reaffirmed. Bankruptcy case files also include final reports submitted by the private trustees that can include information on disbursements and repayments to creditors. Finally, the file includes the case docket that serves as a chronological record of all significant events that occur during the case, such as motions, applications, and court orders. Although the official bankruptcy forms and case files include this information, they nonetheless are limited in providing certain key information that would help inform the nature and causes of consumer bankruptcy. Bankruptcy files do not contain basic characteristics about the debtor or the nature of the debtor’s circumstances, such as the following: Demographic information. Filers are not asked to provide their age, gender, marital status, education, occupation, race, or ethnicity in the bankruptcy petition and thus this information typically is not available from the case file. Reasons for the bankruptcy. The official bankruptcy forms do not ask for the factors that led to the bankruptcy filing, such as job loss or divorce. The forms also do not collect information on the specific source of debt, such as medical bills, gambling losses, or damages from fire, theft, or flood. Postbankruptcy outcomes. No component of the bankruptcy system collects information once a discharge has been granted and a case is closed. As a result, the bankruptcy system does not have data on such things as the financial status of debtors subsequent to the discharge of their debt, including the accumulation of new debt.