For those individuals looking for information about bankruptcy online, there is a plethora of resources on the Internet that may satisfy their needs. It must be stressed that there are issues about the trustworthiness of advice gathered through electronic means as it pertains to bankruptcy.

Some online bankruptcy services are shams, or at the very least will charge fees for their efforts where debtors might be able to manage these tasks themselves for cheaper. Nonetheless, although it is advised that people seek adequate legal representation when appearing in court, leading up to that there are yet other avenues for researching bankruptcy online.

As with sites like the U.S. Court’s “Bankruptcy Basics” series, the official page of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Legal Information Institute, these forums may be of their own special use to average Americans. There are also some additional online bankruptcy services and informational resources:

As always, the blogosphere, as it is known, is opinionated and willing to put its opinions out regarding any topic, including bankruptcy. Sometimes, meanwhile, it is not an informational blog or text that is the most pressing need for debtors and filers, but rather a system of emotional support and spirit of companionship throughout the filing and application process.

A public forum for talking about bankruptcy may be too far outside a debtor’s comfort zone. As such, it may be more advantageous to consult people who have gone through it or are about to petition for bankruptcy online by participating in an Internet chat or bulletin board-type setup.

Online bankruptcy services like this are often free of cost to participants, and there might be added benefits to participants because they are interacting with people who have real-word experience and can empathize with one another. There is, however, no guarantee that their information is all that reliable or generalized to other people.

Then again, while there are not online bankruptcy services per sé, many online news services may be able to keep one abreast of all the financial struggles of corporations around the world, as well as any word on major corporations and businesses in which people may hold stock which are filing for bankruptcy. Online news services, often affiliated with a newspaper or TV news program, are updated daily, and therefore, require Internet surfers to be consistent with visiting them to make sure they are getting the latest stories.

Limiting the contents of one’s news feeds to financial/economic reports and having E-mails sent to one’s account through an RSS system or similar approach may yet be another way to get many different angles from a variety of sources on just one event and in a short amount of time.

Despite the newness of the Internet and the idea that some records prior to the mid-1990’s are not available online, there is nonetheless a fair amount of reliable online information on bankruptcy (how to file for bankruptcy, what are your options). 

The U.S. Court’s official website represents more than just American Bankruptcy Code. Aside from being a pretty valuable resource in its own right, the U.S. Court’s website is also a nexus for other bankruptcy resources. Among its hyperlinked references are the Executive Office of the U.S. Trustee, the Internal Revenue Service, as well as miscellaneous lists of forms involved in declaring bankruptcy. 

In the United States today, predominantly, it is individual debtors who are filing for bankruptcy under Chapter 13 or Chapter 11. For the individual, though, the SEC will likely be of limited use. After all, there is an implicit risk for shareholders of investing in corporations.

Especially for bankruptcy seekers looking to appeal an unfavorable decision, the desire to look up specific details about a particular court case at the Federal level is understandable. As far as government resources are concerned, the chief conduit by which people can log on to a website and download documentation on past hearings is PACER, the Public Access to Court Electronic Records service, sponsored by the U.S. Judiciary and run by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Court system.

As with bankruptcy proceedings, PACER is not limited to bankruptcy court and also features the contents of case files for district and appellate courts. These contents get fairly specific, too. All parties including the officers of the courts are listed, alongside the status of the case, which is updated daily pending changes.

While PACER is the de facto government service for retrieving court records, this does not mean it is popular with everyone. PACER has been roundly criticized for its perceived shortcomings. The primary charge levied against the service is that it charges money at all for access.

The $.08 per page user fee (set by Federal standards) is not much, but is still decried by many who feel public records in the public domain should be free to download. Additionally, there are persistent concerns about the security of sensitive information within PACER’s records and the service’s relatively archaic level of technological sophistication.

Like the U.S. Court’s website, the Legal Information Institute (LII) of Cornell University Law School is not solely devoted to American bankruptcy law. (For that matter, it is not solely devoted to American law, containing sections on international law and other uniform conventions.) However, within this category, the wealth of information that is provided makes up for the site’s overall lack of specificity.

As the name might imply, the primary reason the LII may be of such an asset to bankruptcy information seekers is how it condenses the information of hundreds of thousands of pages of legal documents into one easy-to-use, free database. The entirety of the United States Code (and with it, the Bankruptcy Code) is featured on the LII site, as well as the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure and all Supreme Court cases that relate to bankruptcy.

The LII is more than just a listing of court records and pieces of legislation as they read, though. The summary articles for topics such as bankruptcy, debtor-lender relationships and creditors’ rights, for example, provide a frame of thinking for amateur bankruptcy law students. There is also an expansive glossary/encyclopedia provided by the Institute in the form of Wex, a community-oriented legal dictionary and reference.

Aside from official government websites and educational services associated with institutions of higher learning, there are other resources online that may serve readers’ various purposes when trying to look for more information about bankruptcy. Of course, while official government sites may be excluded from this discussion, reputable news organizations and their online incarnations are not. For the average person, though, syndicated news feeds are mostly apt to inform a person of when a particular company is going out of business.

Blogs on bankruptcy are also likely to be news-based and devoted to a particular topic. While they are more subject to error and bias, they also may be written in a style that reflects a person’s political ideologies or simply a voice that is appealing.

Lastly, but not least, online bankruptcy support groups can bring an individual in contact with others who may be able to help debtors based on their first-hand experience, as well as being there to listen to other users share their stories of hardship. In this regard, bulletin board-style forums may be lacking in generalized factual information and professional conduct, but may yield those who solicit their help with valuable emotional support.

There are many resources out on the Internet today, for better or for worse, that try to lend their voice to the discussion of how to manage your debt. First, it should be noted that the contents of the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system are not solely related to the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts. The information in the PACER program comprises of several court systems.

For those individuals who are limiting their search to bankruptcy court matters alone, PACER may still yield them a sizable amount of specific details, and at a high speed rate. When working more narrowly in the area of bankruptcy law, PACER records can indicate the judge and parties involved. 

As much as the Federal Government would be want to tout the conveniences of the PACER service, there are numerous outsiders who are among its critics. Imaginably, the privacy of the people within these records is a concern.

Sensitive personal information is designed to be redacted from the public view, but there have been times when such details have fallen through the cracks, so to speak, and into unsecured hands. Plus, returning to the idea of the program being up-to-date, some would suggest this applies more to the newness of the case records and less to the technologies employed to store and retrieve these files.

Undoubtedly, though, the biggest argument against the use of PACER is that it is a paid service, costing the user eight cents per page accessed. Although people may have their dues waived if spending less than $10 in a year, and $0.08 may seem like little at the onset, as records may involve a good number of pages per case, the totals can add up quick. For some, in short, it is the principle of the idea.

Some people/organizations vehemently decry charging everyday Americans the right to see government records, fighting back against this measure by trying to release them for free online.

Depending on one’s purpose, the information about bankruptcy one gathers in his or her search may be quite different in tone compared to that of other students of bankruptcy law. As noted elsewhere, people who are taking more of a utilitarian approach to bankruptcy may seek a bankruptcy guide that includes as little legal language as possible.

Meanwhile, some will need a more professional source of information about bankruptcy if they are to practice bankruptcy law as a profession, or simply to play the role of lawyer on their own behalf in the act of filing pro se. In other words, they will need access to enacted statutes and court records, at the State, district and Federal levels.

For these students of the law, the Legal Information Institute (LII), an Internet-based project of Cornell University Law School, may be quite useful in their quest to uncover pertinent information about bankruptcy. Some notes on the applications of the LII toward bankruptcy:

In terms of what the LII seeks to accomplish as a whole, the depth of its efforts and breadth of the information it provides users is remarkable. As one might have guessed, the LII offers more than just information about bankruptcy. Indeed, the Institute is far more comprehensive than that, containing hyperlinks to online versions of the most important documents/records in American history.

Of particular relevance to the follower of bankruptcy law is the inclusion of the United States Bankruptcy Code. Despite all this insistence on the application of details of Federal statutes and landmark Supreme Court decisions for lawyers and law school attendees, the LII tries not to lose its more casual audience members.

For one, in the lead-in to particular chapters of bankruptcy law, the LII frames the individual’s larger understanding of bankruptcy with a concise explanation of bankruptcy law, namely of how it is codified and litigated today. Another meritorious tool put forth by the Institute is Wex, which essentially functions as its searchable lexicon and reference book.

As is apparent, the information about bankruptcy thus discussed is most useful for the citizen as a debtor or the individual with a future or current career in bankruptcy law. Nonetheless, as devotees of the subject know, it is not all about the debtor in liquidation and reorganization cases. Imaginably, this is well understood by the owners of the LII.

In its sections and synopses surrounding the sub-topics of solvency matters, the LII also considers the root causes of bankruptcy and other related issues, explaining the workings of consumer credit, debtor-creditor law as established by contracts, and creditors’ rights in bankruptcy cases.

For those seeking pertinent information on bankruptcy, they may think that the courts would be the last place to go. In doing so, they may be suffering from a faulty conclusion. Probably the most touted individual resource on the U.S. Court’s official website is its “Bankruptcy Basics” section. In terms of raw information on bankruptcy, “Bankruptcy Basics” offers the reader a highly detailed syllabus on the workings of bankruptcy law in America today, explaining the six major chapters of the discharge of debts.

Throughout the U.S. Court’s website, prospective bankruptcy filers are strongly urged not to forgo securing legal representation in affairs of bankruptcy court. All the same, it is legal for individual debtors to submit a petition for relief without hiring an attorney and serve as one’s own lawyer should the want or need arise. Thus, the U.S. Courts still strive to help these people who decide against professional help as much as they can. Not only does the site feature a compendium of all forms and documentation that may need to be brought before the court, but also a section devoted to filing without an attorney.       

As much information on bankruptcy as this site puts out, its organizers still recognize there is more to be said on matters of insolvency, and to the added advantage of the user, the U.S. Court’s site links to other related resources, including but not limited to breakdowns of court fees by chapter of the Bankruptcy Code, lists of accredited credit counselors across America, IRS tax information as related to bankruptcy, and the official page of the Executive Office of the U.S. Trustee Program.  

In personal bankruptcy cases, typically both the identity of the individual debtor and creditors, along with the value of the creditors’ investments, are well established. Usually, the insolvent party is a consumer, the lender is a bank, and terms of the loan stocks are a qualified risk for investors.

For both these reasons, as variable as business bankruptcy information may be, it may also be inherently valuable to the public, who has a need to know what they stand to lose in the event of company liquidation or reorganization.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), primarily seeks fairness in business practices of financial institutions holding consumer’s securities, but also strives to keep the public informed as part of the fight against corporate exploitation of its rights. As a result, SEC.gov, the official website of the SEC, contains a fair amount of business bankruptcy information that is available for the average investor to review.

Some considerations of what SEC.gov can do for you include:

One of the best aspects of SEC.gov is that it contains a comprehensive explanation on corporate bankruptcies. It disseminates this business bankruptcy information in a way that is not alienating to the everyday reader. In fact, the site bills its synopsis of corporate bankruptcy as “what every investor should know,” and dispenses its metaphorical pearls of wisdom in the form of a dialog between expert and knowledge seeker, essentially serving as a “frequently answered questions” section as seen on other pages.

Some of the topics covered on the business bankruptcy part of SEC.gov include the fate of the company and one’s investments post-filing, as well as the basics behind Chapter 7.

Continuing with this theme of following current events and the latest actions of companies of interest, SEC.gov is a viable gateway for the acquisition of business bankruptcy information, as it is required to be submitted to the Government by law. The EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval) system, the SEC’s patented database of state-mandated filings, is a free conduit to information on a wide varieties of corporate entities, indexed by categories such as fiscal quarter and mutual funds companies.

By the same token, though, in its overall synopsis of bankruptcy (which as written, also heavily relates to Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 business bankruptcies), SEC.gov acknowledges the limited usefulness of the SEC in matters of corporate bankruptcy.

Although the site is an adequate starting point for obtaining business bankruptcy information, it is by no means the most technical. Furthermore, while the SEC may serve as an advocate for claimants in a civil or criminal suit against a corporation, under normal circumstances it will probably be unable to get investors back what is most dear to them: their money.