What is a bankruptcy mill?

A bankruptcy mill is a high-volume law firm that processes large numbers of bankruptcy cases with minimal attorney involvement. Cases are often handled by paralegals or software, leading to errors, missed deadlines, and poor outcomes for clients.

How do I know if my bankruptcy attorney is a mill?

Warning signs include: you rarely speak with an actual attorney, your case is one of hundreds filed monthly, communications come only from paralegals, hearings are attended by attorneys you have never met, and billing entries are generic or duplicated.

What problems do bankruptcy mills cause?

Common issues include missed deadlines, incorrect schedules, failure to claim available exemptions, dismissed cases, unnecessary fees, and lack of personalized legal advice. Clients may lose assets they could have protected with competent counsel.

Can I fire my bankruptcy attorney if they are a mill?

Yes. You can substitute counsel or proceed pro se at any time. File a motion to substitute counsel with the court. You may also be entitled to a refund of fees for work not performed or performed negligently.

How many cases should a bankruptcy attorney handle?

There is no hard limit, but attorneys filing more than 20-30 cases per month may struggle to provide adequate individual attention. Quality representation requires reviewing each client's unique financial situation, assets, and exemptions.

Research - Open Bankruptcy Project

Name: National Consumer Bankruptcy Outcomes Dataset (2008-2024)
Creator: Open Bankruptcy Project
Published: 2026-03-28
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Searches across 23.1M records: 7.9M bankruptcy case captions (PACER + RECAP), 11.5M PPP recipients, 3.7M EIDL recipients. Public-record data only.

The Dataset

4,900,000+ Federal bankruptcy cases from the FJC Integrated Database - every consumer filing from 2008 through 2024

Our research uses the Federal Judicial Center's Integrated Database, the most comprehensive public record of federal bankruptcy filings in the United States. We cross-reference this data with PACER docket records, CourtListener archives, and RECAP to build a complete picture of consumer bankruptcy outcomes. The downstream case-level index is published at /cases/.

Federal Rules Submission

Our empirical research has been accepted by the federal judiciary for formal consideration.

Suggestion 26-BK-3

Accepted March 23, 2026 by the Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules. Proposes automated screening of Section 1328(f) discharge eligibility at the point of case filing, supported by analysis of 4.9 million FJC records across all 94 federal districts.

This is the first data-backed proposal submitted to the Rules Committee that quantifies the scale of non-enforcement of Section 1328(f) discharge eligibility requirements. The submission identifies 391,951 repeat filers who received a discharge with no documented eligibility verification.

Reports

All reports are published on our research platform and are freely available.

BAPCPA at Twenty: The ABI Commission's Unfinished Business

The ABI Commission proposed nearly 50 reforms in 2019. We measure what changed using 4.9 million federal cases. March 2026.

All Reports

Complete index of published reports on 1328f.org, including district analyses, attorney scorecards, and outcome studies.

Methodology

Detailed documentation of our data sources, statistical methods, and validation procedures.

Replicate Our Work

Step-by-step instructions for reproducing our analysis using publicly available data. Includes SQL queries, Python scripts, and data dictionaries.

Academic Engagement

OBP's empirical findings form the basis for Suggestions 26-BK-3 and 26-BK-5, accepted by the federal Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules. Our dataset and methodology are available to any academic researcher working on bankruptcy-related empirical research, and we welcome critique and replication.

If you are a researcher interested in our data or methodology, please contact us at info@openbankruptcyproject.org.

Open Source

All of our tools, scripts, and analysis code are published on GitHub under open-source licenses.

bankruptcy-discharge-screener The primary screening tool - client-side SQL.js against FJC data. No server required.
Rule 9037 Compliance Guide Open-source Rule 9037 PII compliance scanner. Detects unredacted SSNs, account numbers, and routing numbers in federal court PDF filings. OCR-enabled for scanned documents.
openbankruptcyproject.org This website - the organizational homepage for the Open Bankruptcy Project.
All Repositories View all public repositories on GitHub.