Two layers of paperwork
Bankruptcy is federal law, so the core forms are the same in every state. The petition, the schedules, the Means Test forms: a filer in Maine and a filer in Arizona fill out identical pages. These are the Official Forms, and the federal judiciary publishes them.
Then there's the second layer. Each bankruptcy court writes its own local rules and its own local forms, and they sit on top of the national set. A filing that has every national form and is missing a required local one is incomplete as far as that court is concerned.
Why courts do this
The national rules leave a lot of day-to-day procedure open, and each court fills the gaps its own way. Local rules cover the practical questions the national rules skip: how documents reach the clerk, how creditor addresses are formatted so the court's system can read them, what the Chapter 13 trustees in that district want to see. Local forms are how the court collects those things in a consistent shape.
What local forms usually cover
The list is different in every court, but the same subjects come up again and again:
- The creditor matrix. This is the mailing list of everyone you owe. Courts set their own layout rules for it, down to margins and line spacing, and many require a signed verification page.
- The Chapter 13 plan. Most courts require their own plan form in place of the national one.
- Pay stubs. Some courts have a cover sheet or declaration for filing proof of income, or for stating that there isn't any.
- Filing without an attorney. Some courts have forms just for self-represented filers, such as a notice of their rights or a disclosure about anyone who helped prepare the paperwork.
- Electronic notices. Many courts have a form for getting court notices by email instead of by mail.
What local rules change
Beyond forms, local rules control how filing works in practice. Courts differ on:
- How a self-filer submits documents. In person, by mail, through a drop box, or through an online tool for filers without attorneys. Not every court offers every option.
- How the fee can be paid. Many courts don't take personal checks or cards from filers and want a money order, cashier's check, or exact cash.
- How many copies are required and whether originals need to be unstapled or single-sided.
- Deadlines and procedures for Chapter 13, which vary more from court to court than anything in Chapter 7.
Where courts post them
Every bankruptcy court has a website, and every one has a page for local rules and a page for forms. Many also have a section for filers without an attorney that pulls the relevant pieces together. The clerk's office answers questions about procedure: which form, how many copies, where to send it. Clerks aren't allowed to give legal advice, so they won't say how a form should be filled out.
Why BK Prepare links out: courts revise local forms often and without much notice. A copy saved here could be out of date within months. So BK Prepare works out which of the 94 courts covers you and sends you to that court's own page, where the current version lives. See local forms by court.
The form date matters
Local forms carry a revision date, usually in a corner or the footer. Clerks check it. An old version of a form can be rejected even when everything written on it is correct. The current version is always the one on the court's own site.
For the national forms and the order everything happens in, see The filing process, step by step.