The Open Bankruptcy Project built a national court data research platform using the same public PACER infrastructure that SCALES works to make free. OBP's tools have already produced a policy outcome: a federal rules suggestion accepted by the Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules. The April 15, 2026 agenda book cites OBP's data by name.
This briefing outlines where OBP and SCALES intersect and where collaboration could produce research neither organization could do alone.
The core finding: 27.4% of prior filers with known dispositions received a discharge with no evidence of eligibility verification under 11 U.S.C. § 1328(f). Identified by cross-referencing two fields in FJC public release data that had never been systematically compared.
The Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules meets April 15, 2026, in Charlotte, NC. The Consumer Subcommittee's memo (Tab 4C, page 125) cites Suggestion 26-BK-3 in footnote 4, noting that OBP's data shows courts are granting discharges to ineligible debtors. The memo recommends the committee consider asking the FJC to study the problem. OBP has already conducted that study using the FJC's own public data.
Two sitting federal judges (Connelly and Kahn) independently submitted the parent suggestion (25-BK-N) arguing Rule 4004 is inconsistent with the statute. OBP's 391,951-case finding provides the empirical evidence supporting their judicial concern. OBP is ahead of the federal judiciary's own research arm on this question.
OBP's analysis pipeline already incorporates SCALES-affiliated open-source libraries: juriscraper, courts-db, and eyecite (bundled in pacer/scripts/lib/). OBP was well into the build when these were integrated, but they accelerated development of court identification, citation extraction, and docket parsing. The 26-BK-3 policy outcome was produced, in part, using tools the SCALES ecosystem made freely available.
| SCALES Brings | OBP Brings |
|---|---|
| $5M NSF-funded data infrastructure | 347 analysis tools already built and running |
| NLP enrichment pipeline for court filings | 4.9M-case FJC database with cross-referenced findings |
| State court expansion (GA, WA) | Federal-only methodology ready to extend |
| Institutional credibility and academic network | Policy outcome (26-BK-3) and public engagement (6K users/week) |
| "People-first data framework" research agenda | 139-domain network, a live experiment in translating court data for public consumption |
| Nonprofit board and governance structure | 501(c)(3) public charity (IRS Letter 947, 4/6/2026), open-source tools, zero hosting cost |
OBP identified the 391,951-case pool. SCALES' enriched data and NLP pipeline could automate verification at scale by extracting prior filing dates, discharge dates, and bar-period calculations from individual dockets. This is the study the Advisory Committee is considering asking the FJC to conduct. A SCALES + OBP collaboration could deliver it faster, with open methodology and reproducible results.
OBP's toolkit detects statistical outliers at the attorney level: dismissal rates, fee extraction, timing patterns. SCALES' NLP enrichment could automate extraction of fee data, motion patterns, and outcome distributions from raw docket text nationally. Together: a national attorney quality scorecard built on reproducible, open methodology.
OBP's methodology is federal-only. SCALES' state court work in Georgia and Washington opens a new dimension where the same consumer protection gaps likely exist but have never been measured. OBP's detection tools could be adapted for state court data structures as SCALES expands its coverage.
OBP's 139-domain educational network is a live experiment in translating court data for non-expert audiences. 6,000+ users in the first week of tracking, with FAQ schema, plain-language explanations, and cross-linked statute references. Usage data could inform SCALES' own accessibility research and the Google-funded AI legal document accessibility project.
The 1328(f) finding is ready for peer review. OBP has the data, methodology, and tools. SCALES has the institutional framework, the academic network, and the journal relationships. Target: Journal of Empirical Legal Studies or a similar venue. The Advisory Committee citation gives it immediate policy relevance.
The full methodology, source code, anonymized sample output, and reproduction steps are available for review:
Contents: 1328(f) discharge eligibility methodology and findings, attorney behavior analytics (opposition rate calculator with anonymized output), and a step-by-step validation guide. All data sources are publicly available. Nothing in the package identifies specific attorneys or cases.
OBP's founder is a small business owner in Kansas City with no law degree, no CS degree, and no academic affiliation. He taught himself Python in 2024 while navigating a Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a pro se debtor. He built the entire platform (347 tools, 4.9 million cases, 139 domains, a federal rules suggestion cited by the Advisory Committee) in under 12 months, working nights and weekends.
Everything is open-source. The tools, the data pipeline, the educational sites. OBP is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The mission is simple: make bankruptcy court data free, transparent, and useful to the people it affects most.
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