Chapter 13 bankruptcy -- the "wage earner's plan" -- requires debtors to complete a three-to-five-year repayment plan before receiving a discharge. But completion rates vary dramatically across federal judicial districts, raising questions about whether debtors in some jurisdictions face systemic disadvantages.
An Open Bankruptcy Project analysis of 18,462 Chapter 13 cases filed between 2018 and 2022 finds a national discharge rate of just 41.2% among cases with known outcomes. The spread between the best and worst performing districts is striking.
Highest Completion Districts
| District | Cases | Discharged | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| District of Kansas | 4,229 | 2,563 | 60.6% |
| Northern District of Illinois | 816 | 469 | 57.5% |
| Western District of Kentucky | 331 | 188 | 56.8% |
| Western District of Missouri | 3,457 | 1,645 | 47.6% |
| Eastern District of Kentucky | 421 | 193 | 45.8% |
| Southern District of Florida | 2,945 | 1,267 | 43.0% |
| District of New Jersey | 281 | 106 | 37.7% |
| Southern District of Texas | 1,776 | 618 | 34.8% |
| Southern District of Indiana | 528 | 174 | 33.0% |
| Central District of California | 256 | 68 | 26.6% |
Lowest Completion Districts
| District | Cases | Discharged | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Middle District of Alabama | 327 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Eastern District of North Carolina | 148 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Eastern District of Pennsylvania | 406 | 0 | 0.0% |
| District of South Carolina | 163 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Northern District of Texas | 109 | 0 | 0.0% |
| Northern District of Alabama | 183 | 1 | 0.5% |
| Western District of Tennessee | 316 | 8 | 2.5% |
| Eastern District of Michigan | 234 | 27 | 11.5% |
| Eastern District of Virginia | 288 | 38 | 13.2% |
| Middle District of Florida | 214 | 35 | 16.4% |
Notable gap: The District of Kansas leads with a 60.6% discharge rate, while several districts show rates below 15%. Debtors in low-completion districts may face structural barriers unrelated to their ability to repay.
What Drives the Disparity?
Multiple factors contribute to geographic variation in Chapter 13 outcomes:
- Attorney quality and volume practices: Districts with high-volume "bankruptcy mill" operations may see lower completion rates due to inadequate client preparation and plan drafting.
- Judicial culture: Some courts have more permissive plan confirmation standards, while others require more rigorous feasibility analysis.
- Trustee administration: Standing trustee practices vary -- some trustees work collaboratively with debtors, while others take a more adversarial approach to plan compliance.
- Economic conditions: Local employment and income instability directly affects debtors' ability to sustain monthly plan payments over 3-5 years.
These findings underscore the importance of transparency in bankruptcy court outcomes. The OBP Research Portal provides district-by-district data to help debtors, attorneys, and policymakers understand how their local court compares.
Policy Implications
A Chapter 13 plan that fails after years of payments can be devastating for families. Dismissed debtors lose the protection of the automatic stay, may forfeit payments already made, and return to the same financial distress that drove them to bankruptcy. The wide variance in completion rates suggests that outcomes depend not just on individual circumstances, but on where a case happens to be filed.
Rule 26-BK-3, currently pending before the Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules, proposes enhanced disclosure requirements that could help address some of these disparities by requiring attorneys to disclose their historical discharge rates to prospective clients.
Methodology: All statistics in this article are derived from the Open Bankruptcy Project's analysis of 4.9 million federal bankruptcy case records obtained from the Federal Judicial Center's Integrated Database, supplemented by PACER docket data across 94 federal judicial districts. Data current as of March 2026.