Bankruptcy Practice Analytics and Screening Tools

Open-source tools for screening districts, benchmarking practice quality, and detecting Section 1328(f) discharge bar violations.

Why attorneys should screen

Section 1328(f) imposes a bright-line discharge bar on repeat Chapter 13 filers. The test requires only three data points: the date of the prior discharge, the date of the new filing, and the chapter of the prior case. No judgment call is needed -- it is arithmetic.

Yet nationally, there is no systematic enforcement mechanism. Trustees may not check prior filing history. Courts rely on debtor self-reporting via Question 9 on the petition. The result: cases proceed through confirmation and years of plan payments, only for discharge to be denied -- or worse, entered in error.

How to screen your district

1. Export PACER data. Use the PACER Case Locator to export CSV data for your district. Filter by attorney name, date range, or case chapter. Searches are free; document pulls are $0.10/page (capped at $3).
2. Download the screener. Clone or download screen_1328f.py from the GitHub repository. Python 3 standard library only -- no pip install needed.
3. Run locally. Point the screener at your CSV exports. It groups cases by debtor name, checks discharge-to-filing gaps against statutory windows, and reports violations with attorney attribution. All processing happens on your machine. No data is transmitted anywhere.
4. Review results. The screener outputs per-attorney summaries, gap calculations, and methodological caveats. False positives from name matching are flagged for manual verification.

Benchmarking against district baselines

The national dashboard provides district-level metrics for all 94 federal bankruptcy districts:

• Dismissal rates -- percentage of Chapter 13 cases terminating by dismissal, compared to district median
• Prior filer rates -- percentage of debtors with prior bankruptcy filings in the same district
• Discharge rates -- percentage of cases reaching successful discharge
• Dismissal velocity -- how quickly cases dismiss relative to district norms

Each state page breaks down data by district, allowing direct comparison of practice-level metrics against local baselines. Outlier attorneys -- those with dismissal rates significantly above or below the district norm -- are identifiable from the published data.

Tools for attorneys

Methodology and research

Full methodology documentation, research reports, and data sources are published at 1328f.org. The methodology covers:

• Name matching algorithms and false positive mitigation
• Statistical controls for district-level variation
• FJC Integrated Database field definitions and limitations
• PACER Case Locator query strategies for comprehensive screening

Legal references

• 11 U.S.C. Section 1328 -- Discharge (Chapter 13)
• 11 U.S.C. Section 727 -- Discharge (Chapter 7)
• Fed. R. Bankr. P. 4004 -- Grant of discharge
• 11 U.S.C. Section 707 -- Dismissal of a case
• Key case law -- Court decisions on 1328(f) interpretation