Media resources, key facts, and contact information for journalists covering bankruptcy court transparency and consumer protection.
Journalists, editors, and producers covering bankruptcy law, consumer protection, or federal court reform are welcome to contact us for data, sourcing, or interviews. We respond to all press inquiries within 24 hours.
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The Open Bankruptcy Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that builds free, open-source tools for bankruptcy court transparency. We analyze the Federal Judicial Center's Integrated Database, which contains filing-level records for nearly 5 million federal bankruptcy cases spanning 2008 through 2024 across all 94 federal judicial districts.
Our research identified 391,951 repeat filers whose prior filing histories were never systematically screened for statutory discharge bars under Sections 1328(f), 727(a)(8), and 109(g) of the Bankruptcy Code. This work led directly to Suggestion 26-BK-3, which was accepted by the Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules in March 2026 and proposes automated eligibility screening at the point of case filing. A separate suggestion, 26-BK-5, addressing Rule 9037 SSN-exposure remediation in Forms 121 and 309E1, was accepted in April 2026.
The project operates a network of free educational domains covering major bankruptcy statutes, with plain-language guides available at no cost. All tools are open source and published on GitHub. We accept no attorney referral fees, run no advertising, and collect no personal data from visitors.
The following topics may be useful starting points for reporting on bankruptcy court transparency and consumer protection issues.
The Screening Gap. Federal bankruptcy courts have no automated mechanism to verify whether a debtor is eligible for a discharge before their case proceeds to completion. Our analysis of 4.9 million cases found that hundreds of thousands of filings with potential statutory bars were never flagged. This gap affects debtors (who may invest years in a plan that cannot end in discharge), creditors (who participate in plans with no legal endpoint), and courts (which allocate resources to cases that should have been screened at intake).
Attorney Performance Variation. Chapter 13 dismissal rates vary from under 20% to over 70% across attorneys handling comparable caseloads in the same district. These patterns persist across years and are publicly measurable through the FJC dataset, yet no federal system surfaces this information for consumers choosing a bankruptcy attorney.
Federal Rules Reform. Suggestion 26-BK-3, accepted by the Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules in March 2026, proposes that courts implement automated discharge bar screening. It is the first public suggestion to the Advisory Committee that is backed by a complete open-source screening tool and a national dataset analysis.
The Open Bankruptcy Project can provide data-backed sourcing, background, and on-the-record commentary on the following topics. We respond to all media requests within 24 hours and can turn around custom data pulls on tight deadlines.
Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 filing trends, dismissal rates, completion rates, and geographic variation across 94 federal districts. 4.9M-case dataset with 17 years of history.
High-volume, low-quality bankruptcy attorneys. Empirical identification methods, outcome disparities, and the consumer harm gap. District-level attorney performance data.
Automated compliance screening, PACER system limitations, open-source tools for court transparency, and the role of AI in federal court modernization.
The federal rulemaking process, Suggestions 26-BK-3 and 26-BK-5, discharge bar enforcement gaps, and how empirical research can drive procedural reform.
Serial bankruptcy filings, prior-filer discharge rates, systemic failure to screen for statutory eligibility bars, and the human cost of undetected re-filing.
Free legal technology, open-source court tools, PACER fee barriers, RECAP, the OBP national case index, and the role of nonprofits in making court data accessible to the public.
Media coverage and citations will be listed here as they are published. For inquiries, contact press@openbankruptcyproject.org.
Brand assets and press materials are available upon request. Contact info@openbankruptcyproject.org with your deadline and we will prioritize accordingly.
Further Reading & Resources
Authority sources for deeper research on the Open Bankruptcy Project and 1328(f) research:
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