U.S. Bankruptcy Court
    FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
    333 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001, 202-565-2500

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FILING INSTRUCTIONS

PETITIONS:
Forms for filing a bankruptcy petition are available on this web site at the Forms & Publications web page.  They are also available at most legal stationary stores or office supply stores that stock legal forms.  The third page of your petition is a signature page which requires your original signature as well as the original signature of any non-attorney petition preparer assisting you in any way with the preparation of your petition or any of the schedules or statements that are/or will be filed to support it.  To find out which forms need to be filed for each chapter, please review the filing checklist.

CREDIT COUNSELING REQUIREMENT:
As of October, 2005, individual debtors are generally required to obtain credit counseling from an approved provider within 180 days prior to filing a case, and to file a statement of compliance and a certificate of credit counseling furnished by the provider. Failure to do so may result in dismissal of the case.

CHAPTER 7:
Parties initiating cases under chapters 7 must file an original petition including the signature page, schedules and statement of financial affairs; Exhibit D - Individual Debtor’s Statement of Compliance with Credit Counseling Requirement along with a Certificate of Credit Counseling, furnished by the provider and Official Form 22A - Chapter 7 Statement of Current Monthly Income and Means Test Calculation As of December 1, 2003, a Form B-21 is required disclosing the full social security number of the debtor. Copies are no longer required unless you want a file-stamped copy for your records.

CHAPTER 13 CASES:
Parties initiating cases under chapters 13 must file an original petition including the signature page, schedules and statement of financial affairs; Exhibit D - Individual Debtor’s Statement of Compliance with Credit Counseling Requirement along with a Certificate of Credit Counseling, furnished by the provider and Official Form B22C - Statement of Current Monthly Income and Calculation of Commitment Period and Disposable Income, a Form B-21 is required disclosing the full social security number of the debtor. Copies are no longer required unless you want a file-stamped copy for your records.

CHAPTER 11 CASES:
Parties initiating a case under Chapter 11 must file an original petition, the list of twenty (20) largest unsecured creditors, exhibit A, declaration, schedules and statement of financial affairs, and Official Form B 22B Chapter 11 Statement of Current Monthly Income.  Copies are no longer required unless you want a file-stamped copy for your records.

ALL CASES:
In addition to the forms listed above, the following local forms must also be filed:  a mailing matrix (a list of the companies or individuals that you owe money to and their mailing addresses), a verification of the mailing matrix and, if applicable, an application to pay the filing fee in installments (7, 11, or 13);

If you need to start your case quickly and do not have time to fill out all the supporting documents, you may file your voluntary petition (all three pages), a list of creditors (in lieu of the schedules), your mailing matrix, with the accompanying verification, Exhibit D - Individual Debtor’s Statement of Compliance with Credit Counseling Requirement along with a Certificate of Credit Counseling, furnished by the provider and Form B-21 disclosing the debtor’s full social security number. The remaining supporting documents, usually the schedules and statement of financial affairs, must be filed within fifteen (15) days.

MAILING MATRIX:
Prepare your mailing matrix (the mailing list of your creditors) according to the matrix formatting instructions which can be found in the Mailing Matrix section of the Forms & Publications web page. The Clerk's Office uses an optical character reader to scan matrices and if you do not follow the instructions exactly, the scanner will not be able to read the matrix correctly. The Clerk’s Office will reject any matrix that does not conform to the proper format.

PROOFS OF CLAIM:
If there are no assets in a chapter 7 case, it is not necessary for creditors to file a proof of claim unless notified by the court to do so.  In chapter 7 asset cases and in chapter 13 cases, creditors must file their proofs of claim within ninety (90) days of the first date set for the meeting of creditors under Section 341, unless that date has been extended by the Court.

The Clerk's Office does not verify the receipt of a proof of claim by telephone.  To verify that it has been received, the creditor must provide an extra copy at the time of filing along with a self-address, stamped return envelope.  The file-stamped copy of the proof of claim will be mailed back to the creditor.

ADVERSARY CASES:
To file an adversary proceeding you must file an original complaint, a summons for each defendant, and an adversary cover sheet.  The filing fee is $250, unless the debtor is the plaintiff in which case the fee does not apply.

FILING MOTIONS:
Motions and pleadings should be accompanied by a certificate of service, a notice of opportunity to object, and a proposed order which lists the parties to be served.  The documents filed should be printed on 8.5" X  11" paper.