The quickest way to get a copy of your bankruptcy discharge letter is to download it from PACER, the federal courts’ online records system, where the order is usually one or two pages and costs $0.10 per page. If your case is too old to be available electronically, or you need a certified copy with the court’s seal, you can request one by mail or in person from the clerk’s office of the bankruptcy court that handled your case.
What to Gather Before You Request
A few details up front will save you time and a $34 records search fee. The single most useful item is your bankruptcy case number, which appears on every document filed in your case. You should also know the full name you used when you filed, the approximate year of filing, and which bankruptcy court and judicial district handled the case.
If you don’t have any of that, PACER’s nationwide case locator lets you search by name or Social Security Number to find your case number and the court where it was filed.1United States Courts. Find a Case (PACER) The clerk’s office can also look up your case with your name and the last four digits of your Social Security Number. And if you had an attorney, they almost certainly kept a copy of every filed document.
Download It From PACER
PACER is the federal judiciary’s electronic records system and covers all bankruptcy, district, and appellate courts.2Public Access to Court Electronic Records. Public Access to Court Electronic Records For most people, this is the cheapest and fastest route.
- Register for a free account at pacer.uscourts.gov. You’ll be asked for your name, address, email, and either a Social Security Number or an employer identification number to verify your identity.
- Search for your case. If you know which court handled the bankruptcy, search that court directly. Otherwise, use the PACER Case Locator to search the national index.
- Open the docket report for your case. The discharge order is usually one of the last entries, labeled something like “Discharge of Debtor” or “Order of Discharge.”
- Click the entry to view, download, or print the PDF.
PACER charges $0.10 per page, capped at $3.00 per document. A discharge order runs one to two pages, so the charge is minimal, and if your total PACER usage for the quarter stays at $30 or below, the fees are waived entirely.2Public Access to Court Electronic Records. Public Access to Court Electronic Records For a single discharge order, that usually means the download is effectively free.
If PACER fees would be a hardship, courts can grant fee exemptions on a case-by-case basis for unrepresented litigants or people who show that the charges create an unreasonable burden.3Public Access to Court Electronic Records. Options to Access Records if You Cannot Afford PACER Fees You can also visit a federal courthouse, where public access terminals let you view case information for free and print pages at $0.10 each.4United States Courts. Electronic Public Access Fee Schedule
Request a Copy From the Court Clerk
By Mail
Send a written request to the clerk’s office of the bankruptcy court that handled your case. Include your full name as it appeared on the filing, your case number, a clear statement that you need a copy of the discharge order, and a self-addressed stamped envelope. Enclose payment by check or money order for the copy fees, and if you need a certified copy, say so in the letter. Payment methods vary by court, so check the court’s website before you mail anything.
In Person
Bring your case information and a photo ID to the bankruptcy courthouse. You can request the copy at the counter, pay the fee, and walk out with the document the same day. This is the fastest option when you need a certified copy on short notice. Many courthouses also have public access terminals in the lobby where you can look up and print the order yourself at $0.10 per page, cheaper than the $0.50 per page the clerk charges for staff-produced copies.4United States Courts. Electronic Public Access Fee Schedule
Do You Need a Certified Copy?
For personal records or to dispute a credit report entry, a plain copy from PACER is usually enough. A certified copy carries the court’s official seal and the clerk’s signature, which some mortgage lenders, government agencies, and courts require as proof. Certification adds $12 per document on top of the copy fee.5United States Courts. Bankruptcy Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule When in doubt, ask whoever is requesting the document. Paying $12 for certification you didn’t need is minor; showing up without it when it was required can delay a mortgage closing by weeks.
Court Fees at a Glance
All bankruptcy courts follow the same federal fee schedule, and these amounts apply nationwide. The current schedule took effect on December 1, 2023.5United States Courts. Bankruptcy Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule
- Paper copies produced by the clerk: $0.50 per page.
- Certification: $12 per document.
- Records search: $34 per name or item searched, charged when the clerk has to locate a case you don’t have a number for.
- Record retrieval from storage: $70 for the first box pulled from a Federal Records Center, plus $43 for each additional box. Electronic retrievals cost $11 plus any storage-facility charges.
- PACER access: $0.10 per page, capped at $3.00 per document, with quarterly totals of $30 or less waived.2Public Access to Court Electronic Records. Public Access to Court Electronic Records
- Courthouse public-access terminal printing: $0.10 per page.4United States Courts. Electronic Public Access Fee Schedule
The $34 search fee is the one that catches people off guard. Finding your case number first, either in your own files or through PACER, avoids it.
Older Cases Sent to the Archives
Cases that closed years ago may no longer be available electronically on PACER. Courts routinely transfer paper files to Federal Records Centers operated by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) after a case has been closed for a certain period. Retrieval then takes longer and costs more.
To pull an archived file, you generally need the case number, debtor name, and the transfer number and box number that identify where the file is stored.6U.S. National Archives & Records Administration. Bankruptcy Case Files The clerk’s office can look those up, though a search fee may apply. Once the file is located, you can have NARA pull the physical box (the court charges $70 for the first) or use NARA’s digital delivery service, sometimes called SmartScan, where staff scan the document and email it as a PDF. Digital delivery is included as a standard reference service at no extra charge beyond what the court may assess for its own retrieval processing.7National Archives and Records Administration. Digital Delivery – SmartScan Standard requests are typically fulfilled within three business days, and same-day delivery is sometimes possible.
You can also order directly from NARA through its online ordering system. NARA charges $35 for a package of pre-selected documents from a bankruptcy case, or $90 for the full case file.8National Archives and Records Administration. NARA Reproduction Fees If you only need the discharge order, the $35 option is the better deal. Turnaround varies, with some requests filled in under two weeks and others taking six weeks or more.
Make Sure Your Case Was Actually Discharged
Before you request anything, confirm your case ended in a discharge rather than a dismissal. A discharge is a court order that eliminates your legal obligation to repay certain debts. A dismissal simply closes the case without erasing anything you owe, and there is no discharge letter to retrieve. In a Chapter 7 case, the discharge typically arrives about four months after filing. In a Chapter 13, it comes after you complete the three-to-five-year repayment plan, roughly four years after filing.9United States Courts. Discharge in Bankruptcy – Bankruptcy Basics If your case closed well before those timeframes, it may have been dismissed. A quick PACER search or a call to the clerk will confirm which happened.