Business Bankruptcy Filings Frequently Asked Questions

Who is your service for?

We provide timely and complete bankruptcy information on new and ongoing business bankruptcies. BusinessBankruptcies.com is for anyone that wants or needs to be informed about new bankruptcies or track the progress of a bankruptcy. This includes:

Businesses: One of your vendors just filed for bankruptcy. If they are critical to your supply chain, keeping up with the status of the business through bankruptcy is essential to assuring your business won’t be disrupted. You may not get the most accurate or honest information from employees of a company in bankruptcy.

Creditors: One of your customers owes you money and is now in bankruptcy. It is essential to stay informed about the status and progress of the bankruptcy so you can maximize your recovery.

Investors or companies looking for distressed assets: Our new bankruptcy notification service, features like saved searches with new match notification and saved cases with docket update notification will keep you on top of the latest distressed asset acquisition opportunities.

We provide the most timely, complete and cost effective bankruptcy information solution available.

Do you have a shorter URL?

Our main URL, businessbankruptcies.com, reflects what we do:

  • Information on business bankruptcies
  • Bankruptcy information for business customers

For convenience, you can also access our service at busbk.com.

How does your free service compare to your subscription service?

We believe that providing significant data and features to our free users allows potential customers to better understand what we provide and how our service can add value to a customers looking for distressed acquisition opportunities or affected by a business bankruptcy.

Our free service allows access to recent business bankruptcy filings, a significant portion of the bankruptcy data, and a feature rich case search interface.

Our cost-effective premium service provides:

  • Email notification of new bankruptcy filings
  • Saved custom searches with email notification when new matches occur
  • Saved cases and case monitoring with email notification when docket updates occur
  • Update a dockets at will (Pro and VIP plans)
  • Easy export of search results and case data into excel spreadsheet format

What features do you offer?

We offer the following features:

Free Petition

All of our subscription plans include free access to the petition document for every case. Our single case plan allows access to the petition for the case that was purchased.

New case emails

All plans include either daily or weekly new case emails. The new case emails are delivered each weekday morning (daily) or on Monday mornings (weekly).

Saved Cases

Our plans include the ability to save cases. In addition to making interesting cases easy to find again, we monitor the docket of saved cases daily and send out email notification of new docket entries every weekday morning.

Saved Searches

All plans include the ability to save searches. In addition to making it easy to run searches again, for Standard, Pro and VIP plans we will automatically run saved searches every time we update our database with new cases and email you any cases that match your saved search.

On-demand Docket Updates

To stay infomed about the progress of a case, you need to monitor the docket. You can save a case to receive docket update notifications each weekday (that a case shows new docket entries). However, sometimes it is helpful to be able to be able to update the docket and see the very latest entries without waiting until the next weekday morning. This is what on-demand docket updates are for. Each plan includes a specific number of on-demand docket updates that can be used each month.

Because others may also be monitoring the same cases as you, at any given time, the docket may have been updated recently by someone else. We limit the number of on-demand docket updates for each case to one per day. This is helpful so you don’t use up your on-demand docket updates when you don’t need to.

Asset & Liability data

All plans include access to asset & liability data for cases, when it is available. The asset & liability data specifies a range for the estimated assets & liabilities of a company at the fime the bankruptcy petition is filed.

Note that involuntary cases will never have asset & liability data. For more about invloluntary cases and bankruptcy in general, see our creditors FAQ. Additinally, some cases will not include asset & liability data when that information is not provided in the petition or the petition is not available.

Creditors data

All plans include access to the list of case creditors.

Data export

VIP plans include the ability to export data, including search results, case data, and creditors lists.

Standard and Pro plans include the ability to export case data (including case details and docket, excluding creditors list).

What plans do you offer?

We offer three subscription plans and a single case plan. See above for the full descriptions of the features.

Here is a quick summary of which plans have which features.

Plan summary

Starter Subscription (No longer available for new subscriptions)

The starter plan includes the following features:

  • FREE PETITION DOCUMENT for every case (if available).
  • Daily (every weekday) or weekly (every monday morning) new case emails. Emails will include all new cases since the last email was sent.
  • Up to 2 saved cases.
  • Up to 2 saved searches. Saved searches for Starter subscriptions are for convenience only and do not include email notification when new matching cases are found.
  • Ability to purchase docket documents for $.10 per page.

Standard Subscription

The Standard plan includes the following features

  • FREE PETITION DOCUMENT for every case (if available).
  • Daily (every weekday) or weekly (every monday morning) new case emails. Emails will include all new cases since the last email was sent.
  • Up to 2 saved cases with docket update notifications.
  • Up to 2 saved searches with new case search match notifications.
  • Ability to export case data (excluding creditors list).
  • Access to asset & liability data.
  • Ability to purchase docket documents for $.10 per page.

Pro Subscription

The Pro plan includes the following features

  • FREE PETITION DOCUMENT for every case (if available).
  • Daily (every weekday) or weekly (every monday morning) new case emails. Emails will include all new cases since the last email was sent.
  • Up to 20 saved cases with docket update notifications.
  • Up to 20 saved searches with new case search match notifications.
  • Up to 50 on-demand docket updates.
  • Ability to export case data (excluding creditors list).
  • Access to asset & liability data.
  • Ability to purchase docket documents for $.10 per page.

VIP Subscription

The VIP plan includes the following features

  • FREE PETITION DOCUMENT for every case (if available).
  • Daily (every weekday) or weekly (every monday morning) new case emails. Emails will include all new cases since the last email was sent.
  • Up to 150 saved cases with docket update notifications.
  • Up to 150 saved searches with new case search match notifications.
  • Up to 300 on-demand docket updates.
  • Access to asset & liability data.
  • Ability to export search results (up to 500 per export), case data, and creditor lists.
  • Ability to purchase docket documents for $.10 per page.

Annual subscriptions

For any of the Standard, Pro, or VIP subscription plans, we offer an annual option at a 2-month discount; 12 months of subscription for 10 times the monthly subscription price.

Single case plan

The single case subscription is perfect for customers, like creditors, that are only interested in a single case. The single case subsription will allow you to follow a case single case for the life of the case. It includes the following:

  • FREE PETITION DOCUMENT for every purchased case
  • Access to all case information for the single case that was purchased, including asset & liability data, the full creditors list, and the full case docket.
  • Docket update notification emails.
  • Access to the case petition at no cost if it is available.
  • Ability to purchase docket documents for $.10 per page.

How does BusinessBankruptcies.com compare to other services?

BusinessBankruptcies was founded by business professionals and technologists looking for a better way to track business bankruptcy opportunities.

Our service stands head and shoulders above other bankruptcy information services:

  • The most cost effective
  • The most complete feature set
  • The most complete and curated database of business bankruptcies

What is PACER?

PACER stands for Public Access to Court Electronic Records and is the system that provides online access to federal court records, including the appellate, bankruptcy, civil, and criminal courts.

The PACER system provides very poor search tools and does not have the ability to alert users when a new case matching a search appears, which makes it a very poor tool for business customers looking for continual up-to-date information on bankruptcy opportunities or who want to be alerted when a customer or vendor files for bankruptcy.

Do I need a PACER account?

No. We provide access to all documents and data available in a bankruptcy.

What is the bankruptcy docket?

The court docket is where most significant information about a bankruptcy can be found, and includes all documents filed with the court during the course of a bankruptcy and a lot of information about the progress of the bankruptcy.

Typical documents include the bankruptcy filing (petition), statements of financial condition and periodic financial statements, and court notices, orders, and motions.

This is the best place to find out information about a company in bankruptcy.

What are the different types of bankruptcy?

Chapter 7: Liquidation Under the Bankruptcy Code.

Chapter 9: Municipal Bankruptcy.

Chapter 11: Reorganization Under the Bankruptcy Code.

Chapter 12: Family Farmer Bankruptcy or Family Fisherman Bankruptcy.

Chapter 13: Individual Debt Adjustment.

Chapter 15: Ancillary and Other Cross-Border Cases.

Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 cases offer the most promise for acquisition opportunities.

For more information on the different bankruptcy chapters, select any case and click on the help (?) link next to the case chapter.

Where can I find detailed financials for a company in bankruptcy?

Debtors are required to file a detailed set of schedules (A-F) shortly after the bankruptcy petition is filed. These schedules will show the most complete view of the debtor’s financials at the time the petition is filed. Look for these exhibits in the docket entries that come in the first month after the petition is filed.

While a debtor is in chapter 11 bankruptcy (and possibly chapter 7 as well) they typically file a monthly statement of financial affairs. This typically includes (for more sophisticated debtors) thinks like, a profit and loss statement, balance sheet, accounts receivable list, accounts payable list, and other detailed financial information.

What information about creditors is available with a bankruptcy case

  • The petition includes the general range of creditors involved in the case
  • The petition may also include a list of the top creditors, and the amounts owed
  • A list of creditors is filed with the case (and sometimes periodically updated) that includes the names and addresses of all listed creditors, but no information about the amounts owed.
  • The statement of financial affairs schedules D and E/F will have detailed information about the creditors and amounts owed.
  • Monthly financial statements that appear in the docket often have detailed accounts payable information that show the creditors and amounts owed.

I still have a question…

Please use our customer service form.