Bankruptcy in the Central District of California

The court

The Central District of California is served by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. The court hears cases across five divisions, with courthouses in Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Riverside, Woodland Hills (San Fernando Valley Division), and Santa Barbara (Northern Division). It is frequently described as the largest bankruptcy court in the United States by filing volume.

Filings by year

The table below counts every case in the searchable record for this district by filing year (earlier decades aggregated). Filing dates are recorded on nearly all indexed cases, so this is the page's primary volume picture.

Chapter breakdown, where recorded (partial)

Coverage note: a filing chapter is recorded for 2.05% of the Central District of California cases in this dataset (5,705 of 278,114); the remainder are counted in the total but not attributed to a chapter, so the per-chapter figures below are floors, not the full picture.

*Years before 2011 are omitted from this breakdown (chapter coding is sparsest there); the full-volume table above covers all years.*

Among cases with a recorded chapter (n=5,705), Chapter 7 is the most common in every year since 2009, with recorded Chapter 7 counts peaking in the mid-to-late 2010s and recorded Chapter 13 counts peaking in 2016-2019. Two reading cautions: a chapter is recorded on only 2.05% of this district's cases in the dataset, so these are floors on true chapter volumes, not totals; and which cases carry a recorded chapter reflects which dockets happen to have been retrieved into the public record - the recorded-chapter subset is not a random sample of the district's filings.

Judges

The following judges appear on Chapter 11 cases in the Central District of California in the enriched dataset, with the number of cases on which each is recorded:

Chapter 11 outcomes

Of the 10 Chapter 11 cases with a recorded chapter in the Central District of California in the searchable record, open-versus-terminated status is data pending - the enriched Chapter 11 dataset has not yet reached this district. Status splits will be added when enrichment coverage lands.

Chapter 13 outcomes (FJC 2008-2024)

Chapter 13 outcome data for the Central District of California, from the FJC Integrated Database (FY 2008-2024; denominator = the 210,421 Chapter 13 cases filed in this district in that window):

Of 210,421 Chapter 13 cases filed here between 2008 and 2024, 37,309 ended in a discharge. Section 1328(f) bars a Chapter 13 discharge for debtors who received a prior discharge within specified look-back periods; a prior case that was dismissed rather than discharged does not trigger the 1328(f) bar, though other limits (like Section 109(g)) can apply. Check a specific case with the eligibility checker, or read the plain-language 1328(f) explainer.

How this district compares

Nationally, the FJC Integrated Database of about 8 million bankruptcy terminations analyzed for 2008-2024 shows an overall discharge rate of 58.3% and a dismissal rate of 41.7% (of the 8M analyzed terminations). Outcomes vary sharply by representation: pro-se Chapter 13 debtors reach discharge about 2.9% of the time versus roughly 47% for represented Chapter 13 debtors (FJC 2008-2024).

Frequently asked questions

Which court handles bankruptcy in the Central District of California? The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California handles federal bankruptcy filings for the district. The court hears cases across five divisions, with courthouses in Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Riverside, Woodland Hills (San Fernando Valley Division), and Santa Barbara (Northern Division). It is frequently described as the largest bankruptcy court in the United States by filing volume.

What chapters do people file here? Across the searchable record, filings appear under Chapters 7, 11, 12, and 13. Where a chapter is recorded, Chapter 7 is the most common in the Central District of California. Chapter 7 (liquidation) and Chapter 13 (individual repayment plan) are the most common nationwide; Chapter 11 (reorganization) is used mainly by businesses and higher-debt individuals; Chapter 12 is for family farmers and fishermen.

How does the Central District of California compare to the rest of the country? National outcome rates come from the FJC dataset described above (8M terminations, 2008-2024). This page reports the district's own case counts from the searchable federal record; a district-specific FJC outcome rate is not shown here.

Where can I find the judges and trustees for this district? See the judges directory and trustees directory, and the California overview for state-level context.

Data and methodology

• Case counts are of the searchable federal record (a national index of about 9.8 million

cases), filtered to the Central District of California (source district code cacbk). This is a count of records in that index, not an official court statistic.

• Chapter is recorded for 2.05% of these cases (5,705 of 278,114); per-chapter

counts are floors, and the recorded-chapter subset reflects docket-retrieval coverage rather than a random sample of filings. An additional 54 records are adversary-proceeding entries with a recorded "AP" code; they are included in the total but excluded from the chapter table.

• Judges and Chapter 11 status come from an enriched dataset of Chapter 11 cases; that dataset

has not yet reached this district (data pending; enrichment queued 2026-07-04).

• National rates (58.3% / 41.7%, and the pro-se gap) are from the **FJC Integrated Database,

~8 million terminations analyzed 2008-2024** - the baseline for all rates on this page. The 9.8M figure is the size of the searchable index only and is never used to compute a rate.

• Names: individual debtor names are reduced to initials; business names are kept. This page

reports aggregates only.

• As of: 2026-07-04. Data: FJC Integrated Database; the Open Bankruptcy Project searchable

index; CourtListener-derived enrichment. A project of the Open Bankruptcy Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. General information only, not legal advice.