Checking on your Bankruptcy Attorney?
The individual or debtor filing Bankruptcy by themselves or in a do it yourself bankruptcy ( filing Pro Se) or through a bankruptcy attorney has the right to view their court records. So, what does PACER stand for and what does it mean to the person filing bankruptcy in Michigan? P.A.C.E.R is an acronyms for “ Public Access Court Electronic Records. Notice the Public part of the word. My attorney told me I couldn’t gert access to pacer. He was surprised a couple months down the road when I informed him he ( or legal assistant) scanned someone elses records with mine when they uploaded my paper work to PACER.
To find the pacer website all you need to do is go to Google and enter PACER. It will most likley be the first link returned from the search engine results page(below). Some people ask why would I want to look at my case online. My attorney has all that information. Well, your attorney may have all the infomation and is filing for you. However, you are ultimately responsible for filing the correct information in accordance to the timetable set forth by the bankrutpcy court. That is, if you want a timely bankruptcy case.
Once you have search and clicked on the link you should have the PACER Service Center website (below) up.The next step gain access to your bankruptcy records is to registe on PACER. All you need to do is click on”register for pacer”. You will now have to enter all of your data. If you wish to gain instant access you will have to provide a credit card number. You may be able to register without a credit card. However, you will have to wait to receive access. I do not know how long it will take to provide access to your account online if you do not use a debit or credit card. I do know they do billing quarterly.
If you have registered already you can go back to the orginal You can either continue to scroll down or click on the Bankrupcy menu and click on “Pacer Links” (above). You will then arrive at the page shown below that shows the statement ”Billing Notice” You will see the courts listed above (Appeals, District, Bankruptcy, Court Home Page). You can do one of two things. You can scroll down through the page until you reach the section or you can just click on the header on the page that says “Bankruptcy” to search for your state and Bankruptcy District.
The screen shot below already I had already scrolled to the beginning of the Bankruptcy section. I am trying to find my state bankruptcy distrtics. In Michigan there are two Bankruptcy websites. The Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District and the the Bankruptcy Court in the Western District.
I found the the Western District website for Michigan and clicked on the link to go to the “Bankruptcy Court in the Western District”. This is where you will start to go from a federal website access to a local court website access. You can see this in the screen shot below.
On the screen shot above you will see “Western District of Michigan-Document Filing System. That is the link you click on right below the federal logo. You will now appear at the login screen shown below. The login information should have been sent to you in the email you registered with. Here is where you enter logi information and password. If you did what I did when registering and used none as the “client code” you would enter none.
You just completed the login?? This is where most people get confused. If you have been using the internet and computers since the 90’s you most likely know how to register at a website and the point was mundane. However, now that you have registered most people don’t know where to look to obtainin information on their Bankrutpcy Case. Here is what you need to keep in mind you get billed for each page you look at in PACER. You get billed $.08. It does not seem like much but, the debt can build up quickly( sound familiar?) :o)
You see in the screen shot above the menu names: Query, Reports, Utilities & Logout. When you begin looking at your case you will mainly be looking at the “Class register” or the “Docket Report” Your PACER bill could skyrocket when you start to perform general Queries or a general query. Try to always make sure if using a query you input your bankruptcy case number. This will prevent y0u from getting a bunch of 8 cent pages that are not related to your case or are just generally useless.
Once you have decided which report to run. Whether it was the Docket Report or Class RegisterYou will now begin to see your case information. I recommend looking at your Docket for the first time. You will want to download all of your case information. You plug in your case number only (09-123456789). I recommend for the fist time looking at your case you use the the bottom menue to do a “Sort by” oldest you will see some entries click on the “numbers”. Depending on your case you could have 30-60 pages or $4.80 for 60 pages. This will open up your court forms in adobe pdf format. Save this to a folder on your desktop called orginal bankruptcy documents or filed bankruptcy documents. You won’t need to look at these again if all the paper work is in order or has been filed correctly the first time you or your attorney filed the paperwork.
One of the reasons to look at PACER is to see if there are any Bankrupty Flags. The screen shot about showed all the individuals bankruptcy information such as bankruptcy attorney, bankruptcy trustee, which court the bankruptcy case was assigned to the filing date. You will will also notice in the upper right hand corner some words ( meanso, reaff, LN,debted). These are flags or quick notes on the case. This is a a typical Chapter 7 No asset bankruptcy case. MEANSNO means their is not presumption of abuse that could be found. DebtEd typically means the the debtor or person filing bankruptcy has not taken their second bankruptcy class. LN means the 341 meeting was held in Lansing Michigan. The REaff means the person or the court is waiting for the signed reaffirmation aggrements. These type aggreements tpically happen when the person filing bankruptcy promises to keep the property and keep the debt rather than discharging it in Bankrutpcy.Here’s how much I was charged. You get this for each time you load a page.
The final two screen shots are from the Query section allows you to look at the case summary, Docket report, status. These are worthwile to look at. The downside to PACER is theire are several ways to look at your case. Just remember to always enter Your case number and it should keep your charges down to a mininum.
The final screen shot below is a quick look at how much I was charged to look at 31 pages I believe this was my initial page it cost $2.48 You should also notice the “download documents” button” here is where you can download your bankruptcy documents and save them.
When filing Bankruptcy you have very little control over your case, some people may be O.K with this others are not. You rely on your attorney to collect the information and then to tell you what is going on with your case. You wait for the court to set the meeting dates. You wait for the court to make their requests and inform you of discharge and when your case is closed. You depend on your bankruptcy attorney or lawyer to submit all the required paperwork. If you have one thing missing the court can dismiss your case. You will then have to pay to file again. Attorneys take on many cases and rely on legal aides to do most of the paper work. If you check pacer you have some control over your case and you are able to notify your attorney that there is a possible issue with your case by checking PACER. Remeber they are human and make mistakes. Using PACER to monitor your bankruptcy case helps you and the bankruptcy attorney while providing credibility to your knowledge of the bankruptcy process.
