Bankruptcy filings are public records, and there are four practical ways to find one: search PACER, the federal judiciary’s online records system; call the free automated phone line (McVCIS); visit a federal bankruptcy courthouse and use a public terminal; or, if you have a lawful reason to pull a credit report, check there. PACER is the fastest and covers every federal bankruptcy court in the country. The other methods are useful when you don’t want an online account, want to avoid fees entirely, or already have credit-reporting access.
Federal law, 11 U.S.C. § 107, makes bankruptcy papers and dockets open to public examination.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 107 – Public Access to Papers Social Security numbers and certain sensitive details are redacted, but the debtor’s name, case number, chapter filed, court, and status are all visible to anyone who looks.
Searching PACER Online
The Public Access to Court Electronic Records system covers every federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy court, with more than a billion filed documents indexed.2Public Access to Court Electronic Records. Public Access to Court Electronic Records Registering is free and takes a few minutes at pacer.uscourts.gov.
You have two ways to search. If you know which court handled the case, you can search that court’s records directly by name, case number, or the last four digits of a Social Security number. If you don’t know where the case was filed, use the PACER Case Locator to run a nationwide search across all bankruptcy courts at once.3United States Courts. Find a Case (PACER) The Case Locator refreshes at midnight, so a filing from earlier that day may not appear yet.
As of late 2024, searching the Case Locator by SSN or EIN also requires entering a last name or business name. The courts made the change to tighten system security.4PACER. Coming Soon – Changes to PCL Find Bankruptcy by SSN/EIN
What PACER Costs
Viewing pages costs $0.10 each, capped at $3.00 per document. If your account runs up less than $30.00 in charges during a quarterly billing cycle, those fees are waived entirely.5United States Courts. Electronic Public Access Fee Schedule For a casual one-time search, you’re unlikely to hit that threshold, which makes PACER effectively free for most people confirming a single filing.
What Shows Up
A search result lists the debtor’s name, case number, court, chapter (7, 11, 12, or 13), and current status. From the result, you can open the docket, which shows every motion, order, and filing in the case. The petition, schedules of debts, and discharge order are all downloadable. Each page you pull counts toward the fee.
Using the McVCIS Phone Line
If you’d rather skip creating an account, the Multi-court Voice Case Information System runs 24 hours a day at (866) 222-8029.6PACER: Federal Court Records. Phone Access to Court Records The automated system walks you through searching by name, case number, or Social Security number, and reads back the case number, filing date, chapter, and status. It’s free. You won’t get copies of documents, only the basic case data.
Visiting a Bankruptcy Court
Every federal bankruptcy court has public terminals where you can view electronic case records at no charge. Printing costs $0.10 per page, but simple on-screen viewing is free.3United States Courts. Find a Case (PACER) It’s a good option if you want to browse without accumulating PACER fees. Court clerks can help you locate specific filings, though they won’t interpret them.
Which courthouse? Bankruptcy cases are filed in the federal judicial district where the debtor lives or where the business has its principal place of business, so start with the debtor’s last known address. The U.S. Courts website has a locator that maps addresses to districts.
Finding Older or Archived Cases
PACER covers cases filed after courts moved to electronic filing. Older cases, particularly from the 1990s or earlier, may exist only on paper at a Federal Records Center. To retrieve one, you request it through the bankruptcy court clerk’s office and pay a fee: $70 for the first box pulled from storage, $43 for each additional box, or $11 plus any storage-facility charges for an electronic retrieval. If you need the court itself to search on your behalf, that’s $34 per name or item.7United States Courts. Bankruptcy Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule Confirm the case exists through McVCIS or a basic PACER search before paying for a physical retrieval.
Checking a Credit Report
A bankruptcy shows up on the debtor’s credit report and stays there for up to 10 years from the date of the court order.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau notes that in certain instances a bankruptcy can be reported for longer.9Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Long Does a Bankruptcy Appear on Credit Reports
Credit reports are not public records. Federal law limits access to specific permissible purposes: evaluating a credit application, employment screening with written consent, insurance underwriting, and landlord tenant screening that the consumer initiated.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports You cannot pull a stranger’s report to check for a bankruptcy.
To check your own, the three major bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) now offer free weekly reports through AnnualCreditReport.com, a program made permanent after starting as a pandemic measure.11Federal Trade Commission. You Now Have Permanent Access to Free Weekly Credit Reports
Reading the Status and Chapter
Once you find a case, the status line tells you most of what you need to know. “Discharged” means the court wiped out the debtor’s eligible debts and the case completed successfully; creditors covered by the discharge can no longer collect. “Dismissed” means the case ended without debt relief, often because paperwork wasn’t filed, Chapter 13 payments weren’t made, or hearings were missed. After a dismissal, creditors can resume collection as if the bankruptcy never happened.
The chapter matters too. Chapter 7 is a liquidation where nonexempt assets are sold to pay creditors and eligible remaining debts are discharged, usually within a few months. Chapter 13 involves a three-to-five-year repayment plan with a discharge at the end if the debtor completes it. Chapter 11 is a reorganization used primarily by businesses.
Details That Narrow the Search
Common names can produce dozens of results across the country. The more identifying detail you bring, the faster you’ll land on the right case.
- Last known address. Cases are filed in the district where the debtor lives, so city and state point you to the right court or region.
- Last four digits of the SSN. PACER accepts partial SSN searches, and this is the fastest way to cut through results for a common name.
- Approximate filing date. Date ranges keep unrelated results out of the list.
- EIN for a business. Combined with the business name, this gives a precise match.
Without at least a name and a general idea of location, a nationwide PACER search can return too many hits to be useful. McVCIS has the same problem: the phone system reads back matches one after another, so a common name with no narrowing detail means listening through many summaries.
If You’re a Creditor
The moment a bankruptcy is filed, an automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362 blocks nearly all collection activity: lawsuits, garnishments, collection calls, repossessions, and enforcement of pre-filing judgments all stop.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay If your search confirms an active filing against someone you’re trying to collect from, stop collection activity and talk to an attorney before doing anything else. Willful violations of the stay can expose you to actual damages, attorney fees, and in serious cases punitive damages.
Limits on Using What You Find
Anyone can look at a bankruptcy record, but acting on it is a separate question. Under 11 U.S.C. § 525, government agencies cannot deny or revoke a license, permit, or employment solely because someone filed for bankruptcy, and private employers cannot fire or discriminate in employment solely on that basis. The same statute extends protections to student loan programs.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 525 – Protection Against Discriminatory Treatment Landlords, lenders, and employers who pull credit reports also need a permissible purpose under federal law, and adverse action based on a bankruptcy carries its own legal risks.