To look up bankruptcies online, use PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records), the federal judiciary’s official database at pacer.uscourts.gov. Registration is free, and if your usage stays at or below $30 in charges per quarter, the system waives the balance automatically. Free alternatives exist too: a toll-free phone system, public terminals at federal courthouses, and a browser extension called RECAP that shares documents other users have already purchased.
Register for a PACER Account
You need an account before you can search. Go to pacer.uscourts.gov and complete the registration form, which asks for your full name, mailing address, email, and date of birth.1PACER: Federal Court Records. Register for an Account You can add a credit card during signup for immediate access. Skip that step and you’ll receive an activation code by U.S. mail in 7 to 10 business days.
PACER charges $0.10 per page for search results and documents, capped at $3.00 per document (30 pages). If your quarterly charges total $30 or less, you owe nothing.2United States Courts. Electronic Public Access Fee Schedule Most people running an occasional search never see a bill.
If You Can’t Afford the Fees
Individual courts can grant fee exemptions case by case. You have to show the exemption is necessary to avoid an unreasonable burden and to promote public access. Unrepresented litigants and people who qualify as indigent should contact the specific court where the records are held, because the process varies.3PACER: Federal Court Records. Options to Access Records if you Cannot Afford PACER Fees A granted exemption lasts a set period and bars you from selling or transferring the data you obtain.
Run the Search
Gather what you can before you start. The debtor’s full legal name is essential. Knowing the federal district where they filed narrows the field. A case number, if you have one from a creditor notice or legal document, is the most direct route.4PACER: Federal Court Records. Find a Case
After logging in, open the PACER Case Locator, a national index covering bankruptcy, district, and appellate courts.5PACER Case Locator. PACER Case Locator Pick “Bankruptcy Search” from the navigation. You can search by Social Security number or Employer Identification Number, or use “Advanced Party Search” to search by name while filtering to bankruptcy court cases.6PACER: Federal Court Records. PACER Case Locator User Manual
Results list each matching case with the title, case number, court, filing date, and closing date. Hovering the information icon shows the bankruptcy chapter, jurisdiction, and disposition. If a search returns fewer than 5,400 results, you can sort by any column.6PACER: Federal Court Records. PACER Case Locator User Manual
Click a case number to reach the docket sheet, a chronological log of every filing and court order. From there you can see whether the case was discharged or dismissed, when the meeting of creditors happened, and what motions were filed. The trustee is typically named on the docket. To read a specific document, click the link next to the entry to generate a PDF. Each page you view counts toward your quarterly total, so open only what you need — the petition, schedules, or discharge order will usually be enough.
Read the Results Correctly
Bankruptcy records use terms that mean specific things. Two matter most: the chapter and the case status.
Chapter
The chapter number tells you what kind of bankruptcy was filed. Chapter 7, sometimes called liquidation, generally involves selling non-exempt property to pay creditors and then discharging remaining qualifying debts. Chapter 13 is a reorganization plan for individuals with regular income, with repayment over three to five years. Chapter 11 is a similar reorganization process used primarily by businesses. The chapter appears in your search results and on the docket sheet.
Discharged, Dismissed, or Closed
These are not interchangeable, and mixing them up will give you the wrong answer:
- Discharged means the debtor was released from personal liability for qualifying debts. This is the outcome most filers seek.7United States Courts. Bankruptcy Basics Glossary
- Dismissed means the court stopped proceedings without granting a discharge. Debts remain, and creditors can resume collection. A dismissal can happen at the debtor’s request, after a failure to meet requirements, or on a successful motion by a creditor or trustee.
- Closed means all activity in the case is complete, including motions and trustee duties. A closed case may or may not include a discharge; check the docket for a separate discharge order to confirm.
If you’re researching a bankruptcy for a business decision, the discharged/dismissed distinction is the one that changes the answer.
Free Alternatives to PACER
You don’t always need a PACER account for basic case information.
Toll-Free Phone Lookup
The Multi-Court Voice Case Information System (McVCIS) is free. Call 1-866-222-8029 from any touch-tone phone, 24 hours a day, to look up cases in participating courts.8PACER: Federal Court Records. Phone Access to Court Records Search by case number, debtor name, or Social Security number. The system reports the debtor’s name, case number, assigned judge, chapter, filing date, discharge date, and general status. Each call allows up to five searches.
Courthouse Terminals
Federal courthouses provide public terminals for viewing bankruptcy case information and documents at no charge. Printing costs $0.10 per page, paid at the clerk’s office.2United States Courts. Electronic Public Access Fee Schedule If you live near a federal courthouse and only need a few documents, this route avoids PACER charges entirely.
RECAP
RECAP is a free browser extension that works alongside PACER. When any RECAP user buys a document from PACER, it goes into a shared public archive. If someone else has already retrieved what you need, you can access it for free directly through the PACER interface. Commonly searched cases often have significant documents already available at no cost.
Cases Filed Before 1999
PACER’s electronic records don’t reach back indefinitely. Most cases filed before 1999 exist only on paper and are not in the online system.9United States Courts. Find a Case – PACER The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) holds closed bankruptcy files from that era and offers three ordering packages:10U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Bankruptcy Case Files – Order Reproductions
- Entire case file, up to 150 pages, for $90 including shipping (extra labor charges apply above 150 pages).
- Pre-selected key documents (discharge or dismissal order, petition, and debt schedules) for $35.
- Docket sheet only, for $35.
To order, you’ll need the state and city of the court, the debtor’s name, the case number, and NARA-specific identifiers like transfer and box numbers. The federal court where the case was originally filed can help you find those.
Be Cautious With Third-Party Sites
Background check services, credit reporting agencies, and private legal data aggregators also sell access to bankruptcy records. They tend to rank high in search results and feel simpler than PACER, and some pair bankruptcy data with property filings or court judgments for a broader profile.
The tradeoffs are real. Private databases update on their own schedules, so there’s often a lag between a court filing and its appearance on the site. They rarely provide the full docket or the actual PDF documents. Errors are common: omitting disposition information, such as showing a filing without noting that it was later discharged or dismissed, is one of the most frequent problems regulators have identified in background screening reports.11Federal Register. Fair Credit Reporting – Background Screening For any consequential decision, verifying through PACER gives you the complete, current record rather than a summary that may be stale or incomplete.