His chapter 13 call for that day is canceled. Motions noticed for hearing on August 6, 2013, will be continued for hearing to August 13, 2013, at 10:30 a.m.

After 5:00 PM, Tuesday, April 30, 2013 the court will commence the upgrade to a new telephone system.  This means that the court will not be able to accept any inbound calls after 5:00 PM and until the upgrade is complete.  Completion is expected between 10:00 PM to Midnight.  This upgrade should have no other impact upon its customers.

Coincidental to the telephone system upgrade the U. S. Bankruptcy Court will change its main telephone number, 312 435-5694.  The old number will remain active, but the court will update its published number to 312 408-5000.

Thank you for your attention.

Scheduled CMECF maintenance done as of April 27 2013 12:05 PM CDT. You may resume viewing or filing new case documents at this time.

CMECF will be removed from service at 4:00 PM CDT on Friday, April 26, 2013 for scheduled maintenance. The outage will affect filing of documents. The outage should be over by April 27, 2013 at appropriately 12:00 PM CDT  ( time updated: previously  2:00 PM) and services restored.

Viewing of documents and case information can be done via a PACER account on our Replica site at the same URL - https://ecf.ilnb.uscourts.gov/.  UPDATE NOTE: Due to extended processing times, the Replica site's availability  has changed and now should be operational starting at approximately  8:00-9:00 PM CDT (previously 5:30-6:30 PM) on Friday.

Another list service email will be sent when all services are available.

View Updated Schedule of Fees - 28 U.S.C. 1930.

All systems have been restored.  Thank you for your patience and understanding.

On Saturday, April 13th, beginning at 6:00 AM we will perform system maintenance. CM/ECF, PACER, Public Website, and training registration will be unavailable.

Services are expected to be restored around 2pm. We will send a list serve message when systems are available.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

The opportunity for attorneys to provide pro bono representation in bankruptcy matters through the court's Volunteer Attorney Panel has been expanded to include matters heard in Kane County and Rockford, Illinois.

The Volunteer Attorney Panel consists of attorneys willing to represent pro se parties (mostly debtors but sometimes creditors) in bankruptcy cases. Representation is limited to adversary proceedings and contested matters – matters requiring litigation skills that pro se parties lack. No panel member is asked to file a bankruptcy case, complete schedules and similar forms, or attend a meeting of creditors.

The program is also voluntary. Panel members are never required to accept representation in a particular matter and may decline a request for representation because of a conflict of interest or for any other reason.

If you are not a current member and are interested in joining the panel, complete the short questionnaire available at http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/VAP/volform.cfm.

The Official Bankruptcy Forms listed below will change due to automatic adjustment of dollar amounts as required in various provisions of Bankruptcy Code 11 USC §104. For additional information regarding the affected forms below, please visit: http://www.uscourts.gov/FormsAndFees/Forms/BankruptcyForms.aspx and select "Pending Changes" under "Links to Related Materials"

Official Forms Affected:

• B1 Voluntary Petition
• B6C Schedule C – Property Claimed as Exempt
• B6E Schedule E – Creditors Holding Unsecured Priority Claims
• B7 Statement of Financial Affairs
• B10 Proof of Claim
• B22A Statement of Current Monthly Income and Means Test Calculation (Chapter 7)
• B22C Statement of Current Monthly Income and Calculation of Commitment Period and Disposable Income (Chapter 13)
• B 200 Required List, Schedules, Statements and Fees
• B 282 Chapter 13 Debtor’s Certifications Regarding Domestic Support Obligations and Section 522(q)

 

CM/ECF is now online and services have been restored.
You may now proceed to file documents or view case/court information.
Due to the outage, system demand at this time is very high and may result in a slower than normal response. Performance will improve as the backlog is reduced.

We apologize for the difficulty you may have experienced and thank you for your patience and understanding.

A processing issue with CM/ECF has occurred.
We are troubleshooting the problem.
Our best estimate is that service may be restored later this afternoon.

Sorry for your inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Due to the inclement weather, The U.S. Bankruptcy Court located at 327 South Church Street, Rockford, Illinois will close today at 2:30 p.m. Please review the Courts website at www.ilnb.uscourts.gov for bankruptcy information.

The Court has created a new Internet Website which is compliant with a national, standard website template. This template was developed in response to feedback received from court constituents expressing that consistency in design would improve one's ability to navigate to necessary information. Court sites based on the template are not identical, but by organizing data in a similar manner it is hoped that the visitor experience will be improved.

On Monday, February 25, 2013 the Bankruptcy Court will provide access to its new site in "Beta" fashion. This means the new site will be available concurrently with the present Live site, www.ilnb.uscourts.gov. While the information provided on the Beta site, http://tdi.ilnb.uscourts.gov/new/,  is nearly identical to the "Live" site, it is, nevertheless, Beta. The point of offering this preview is many fold.

1. Provide the public an advanced look;
2. Solicit suggestions, please note the Feedback Panel on the Main Page;
3. Clarify any information that is unclear.

As stated above, during Beta some information is still evolving. Among these is an improved Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) facility. Until the Beta site replaces the Live please use the Live site, www.ilnb.uscourts.gov as the authoritative site.

The Beta site will become the Court's official Internet site once suggestions have been analyzed and where possible, effectuated, with the approval of the Judges.

Thank you for your attention and suggestions.

View the Judge Barnes' Procedures for Cases

No interruption of CM/ECF services occurred during this maintenance.

The court must make an important repair to an element of the e-filing system. The outage will commence at approximately 5:00 PM CST. Service is expected to be restored within an hour. A list service and announcement will be posted when E-filing, CM/ECF, is restored. Thank you very much for your patience and understanding.

 Judge Schmetterer will be participating in the court’s Calendar Adjustment Program from March 1, 2013 through May 31, 2013. All documents shall continue to be filed with Judge Schmetterer’s name on them and noticed for hearing before Judge Schmetterer in courtroom No. 682 according to the schedule listed below. All work will be processed and forwarded to the appropriate Judge by his staff. Motions presented during this time will be noticed and heard as follows:

CHAPTER 13 CASES AND RELATED ADVERSARIES TO BE HEARD ON WEDNESDAYS

9:30 A.M. Original Motions (all parties, including trustee)
10:00 A.M. Status hearings on all set matters
11:00 A.M. Confirmation hearings

CHAPTER 7 CASES AND RELATED ADVERSARIES TO BE HEARD ON TUESDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS

All Original Motions and Set Matters must be noticed for 9:30 a.m.

CHAPTER 7 TRUSTEE'S FINAL REPORT

For the months of March, April and May, Fee Applications should be noticed for Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. in courtroom 682.

CHAPTER 11 CASES

Judge Schmetterer will sit on Fridays during the Calendar Adjustment Program except for dates that may be published when he will not sit. On Fridays when he is sitting, he will hear all new motions and all pending matters in Chapter 11 cases assigned to him, and any matters and trials in other chapter cases which he may schedule by orders entered before March 1, 2013. New motions in Chapter 11 cases assigned to him or pertaining to matters or trials that are scheduled should be noticed for 10:30 a.m. on Fridays in courtroom 682.

EMERGENCY MOTIONS

Chapter 7 and 13 emergency motions should be noticed in accordance with General Order No. 12-01. Chapter 11 emergency motions should be noticed in accordance with General Order No. 12-01, unless they can be noticed on Fridays when Judge Schmetterer is sitting.

 

Beginning with the March 21, 2013 call and for all court dates in Geneva/Kane County thereafter the times are as follows:

Chapter 13 and Chapter 12 Motions at 9:30 a.m.
Chapter 13 and Chapter 12 Status hearings/Adversaries at 10:00 a.m.
Chapter 13 confirmation hearings at 10:15 a.m.
Chapter 7 Motions at 11:00 a.m.
Chapter 7 Status hearings/adversaries at 11:15 a.m.

For further information, please refer to Judge Doyle's web page or call her chambers at (312) 435-6010.

New motions that have been noticed for the incorrect time should be re-noticed for the correct time slot.

Please note that the times for the Kane County - Geneva Call have changed. Chapter 7 Motions at 9:30 a.m. Chapter 7 Status Hearings/Adversaries at 10:00 a.m. Chapter 13 and Chapter 12 Motions at 10:30 a.m. Chapter 13 and Chapter 12 Status Hearings/Adversaries at 11:00 a.m. Chapter 13 Confirmations t 11:15 a.m. For further information and for the dates that Judge Doyle will be sitting in Kane County, please visit Judge Doyle’s web page.

IT IS ORDERED that all pending Western Division cases, and any related adversary proceedings, on the calendar of Judge Manuel Barbosa are reassigned to Judge Thomas M. Lynch.

Administrative Order 13-01

IT IS ORDERED that the Administrative Order 12-09 dated May 15, 2012 is vacated as of the effective date of this order.

Administrative Order 12-17

View Interim Local Rule for complete details.

Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee Winter Newsletter now available for your reading pleasure.

Scheduled CMECF maintenance done as of December 8, 2012, 11:55 AM CT. You may resume viewing or filing new case documents at this time.

In order to permit more time with family and friends, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois will be closed on Monday, December 24 and Tuesday, December 25, 2012, in observance of the Christmas holiday and on Monday, December 31, 2012, and Tuesday, January 1, 2013, in observance of the New Year's holiday. Any matter previously set for these dates will be continued to another date set by the judge presiding in the matter.

See Administrative Order No. 12-16

The new courtroom in Geneva is 240 starting immediately.

Effective with Judge Doyle's Chapter 13 call in Chicago on January 8, 2013, new attorney and trustee motions will be heard at 9:30 a.m. Any motions already set for the 9:15 a.m. time slot will be heard instead at 9:30 a.m.

Please notice all future motions in Chapter 13 cases in Chicago for 9:30 a.m. on Tuesdays.

CMECF will be removed from service at 4:00 PM CDT on Friday, December 7, 2012 for scheduled maintenance. The outage will affect filing of documents. The outage should be over by December 8, 2012 at appropriately 2:00 PM and services restored.

Viewing of documents and case information can be done via a PACER account on our Replica site at the same URL - https://ecf.ilnb.uscourts.gov/

Another list service email will be sent when all services are available.

The following motions events are available for filers to use whenever they wish tor request that an order or judgment be modified. All of these events will allow a filer to relate to an order or judgment. The Motion to Amend can no longer be used to request modification of an order. Please choose the event that matches the title of your PDF.

Motion to Alter/Amend Judgment/Order/New Trial (Bk Rule 9023)
Motion for Relief from Judgment/Order (Bk Rule 9024)
Motion to Vacate Order
Motion to Vacate Dismissal
Motion to Vacate Discharge
Motion to Dismiss Case and Vacate Discharge

The Motion to Redact Filing per Rule 9037(a) has been modified so that only the filer of the motion and Court personnel can view the motion and attachments. This will insure that any private information that may be included in the motion or any attachments is not available to the public.
External users, other than the filer, who try to view the motion will now see the message:
The document is not available.

Changes have been posted in our External Procedures Manual at
http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/madcap/content/pop-up_topics/list_of_revisions.htm

When you provide a check or money order as payment, you authorize us either to use information from your check to make a one-time electronic fund transfer from your account or to process the payment as a check transaction. For inquiries, please call (312-435- 5622).

View notice for complete details.

View announcement notice

Effective November 21, 2012 some filing fees will change. Please click on the following link to review the changes which are hghlighted in red:
http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/Announcements/fee-increase_11212012.pdf

In order to permit more time with family and friends, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois will be closed on Thursday, November 22 and Friday, November 23, 2012 in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Any matter previously set for November 23, 2012 is continued to November 26, 2012 or another date set by the judge presiding in the matter.

View Administrative Order 12-14

The Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee Invites you to its 2012 Holiday Reception to be held on December 13, 2012.
Please Join Us in Celebrating the 2012 Holiday Season. View invitation for complete information.

On Friday, November 9, 2012, the court will be performing important system maintenance from 6:00 PM CT until approximately Saturday November 10, 2012 9:00 AM CT. During this outage most court services including the court's website will be unavailable. During the outage E-Filing, CM/ECF will be available. You will need the following link to login to CM/ECF during the outage: https://ecf.ilnb.uscourts.gov

We will send a list service message when service is restored.
Many apologies for this inconvenience.

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois is seeking a qualified individual to become the Clerk of Court. Please click here to review the job posting for further information.

View the Administrative Procedures for CM/ECF

Please be aware of the following changes to Judge Barnes' courtroom and chambers locations. Effective November 5, 2012, Judge Barnes will be located in courtroom 613. His chambers will be located in suite 668. The new courtroom location should be selected when scheduling matters for hearing.
 

Please be aware of the following changes to Judge Goldgar's courtroom and chambers locations. Effective November 5, 2012, Judge Goldgar will be located in courtroom 642. His chambers will be located in suite 638.
The new courtroom location should be selected when scheduling matters for hearing.

The Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee created a survey regarding local practice in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois. This survey is for all practitioners who appear before the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

The survey can be found at the following link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GWMFQ6F

Through this survey, the Committee seeks the comment and input of local bankruptcy/restructuring lawyers regarding local practice and procedure. The comments and ideas generated by participants will be reviewed and shared with Committee Members. Committee Members consist of private attorneys, Bankruptcy Judges and representatives from the United States Trustee's Office. A list of the current members of the Committee can be found at: http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/bk_liaison_committee/BCLC_Members.pdf

The Committee would like all responses to the survey on or before December 20, 2012.

If you have questions or would like to provide comments about a particular question, please send an email to
BankruptcyLiaisonCommittee@gmail.com

Those attorneys or law firms that prefer to receive a copy of the survey as a word document can request a copy via email at
BankruptcyLiaisonCommittee@gmail.com

Thank you for participating in the Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee's Local Practice Survey.

All Court electronic services,including CMECF and PACER have been restored. You may resume  viewing or filing new case documents at this  time.

On Saturday, October 6, 2012, the court will be performing important system maintenance. Maintenance will begin 9:00 AM and continue until 12:00 PM Central Daylight Time, possibly sooner.

During this outage most court services including the court's website, CMECF and PACER will be unavailable. We will send a list service message when service is restored.

Thank you for the patience and understanding.

Effective December 7, 2012, the Will, LaSalle, Kendall & Grundy call will be heard at:

Joliet City Hall
150 West Jefferson Street
2nd Floor
Joliet, Illinois 60432

Please note that in addition to the courthouse location changing, effective December 7, 2012 the time of the Chapter 13 Confirmation call and the Chapter 13 Set matter call will change from 11:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Motions and other matters to be noticed for December 7, 2012, and thereafter should be noticed for the new Joliet City Hall location instead of the current Will County Annex Building location and should be set for the appropriate time as indicated on Judge Black’s Joliet Schedule. 

If you have any questions regarding this schedule, please contact Chambers at (312) 435-6867 or the Courtroom Deputy at (312) 435-6868.

View General Order No. 12-01

Bankruptcy and Reorganization Committee announces annual "State of the Court" meeting to be held with Chief Judge Black on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at 12:15 p.m. Please click on the attachment for further details.

It is necessary for the court to make a very important change to its Internet services this Friday, September 14, 2012. Commencing at 7:00 PM, Central Time, access the court's website and electronic filing will be unavailable. The outage duration is estimated to be one and three hours or approximately 10:00 PM. A list service message will be sent when service is restored.

Apologies for this inconvenience and thank you for your understanding and patience.

On Saturday, September 1, 2012, the court will be performing important system maintenance from 8:00 AM until 5:00 PM Central Daylight Time. During this outage most court services including the court's website will be unavailable. During the outage E-Filing, CM/ECF WILL be available. You will need the following link to login to CM/ECF during the outage.

https://ecf.ilnb.uscourts.gov

Many apologies for this inconvenience.

On Thursday, August 23, 2012, we will perform an important upgrade. The following services will be unavailable from, approximately, 6:30 am to 7:00 am.

Outside CM/ECF(PACER)
Outside Training CM/ECF
Outside Test CM/ECF
Public website (www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/ )
Training registration
Trustee Data Interchange

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

REMINDER Effective September 1, 2012, Judge Doyle will hear Chapter 13 cases on Tuesdays. All new motions, original and trustee, will be heard at 9:15 a.m. Set matters will be at 10:00 a.m. (including status hearings on adversaries) and confirmation hearings will be at 10:30 a.m. Effective September 1, 2012, Judge Doyle will hear Chapter 7 and 11 cases on Wednesdays and Thursdays. New motions will be heard at 10:00 a.m. and set matters will be heard at 10:30 a.m.

Today at approximately 12:30 PM, access to all court electronic services were interrupted for a period of about 2 hours due to a court Internet connectivity problem. This problem has been corrected.

We apologize for the difficulty you may have experienced and thank you for your patience and understanding.

At approximately 6:00 AM to 6:15 AM we will be performing an important network change.

This may cause an interruption to CM/ECF and the Court's website.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

For detailed information: Attorney position opening for Bankruptcy Court Help Desk  

 

View Administrative Order 12-11

Effective July 16, 2012, Judge Doyle will be assigned new Chapter 13 cases. Any new motion on these cases should be noticed for Tuesdays at 9:15 a.m.
Effective September 1, 2012, Judge Doyle will hear Chapter 13 cases on Tuesdays. All new motions, original and trustee, will be heard at 9:15 a.m. Set matters will be at 10:00 a.m. and confirmation hearings will be at 10:30 a.m.
Effective September 1, 2012, Judge Doyle will hear Chapter 7 and 11 cases on Wednesdays and Thursdays. New motions will be heard at 10:00 a.m. and set matters will be heard at 10:30 a.m.
Judge Doyle's Original Motion / Adversary Schedule

WHITE SOX VS. KANSAS CITY ROYALS
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Tickets: $58
(includes game and food & drinks at Patio Party)

Patio Opens: 5:30 pm
First Pitch: 7:10 pm

To purchase tickets, contact:
Nate Rugg (nrugg@ag-ltd.com)
or Robin Maatman (rm@ag-ltd.com)
Adelman & Gettleman, Ltd.
53 W. Jackson Blvd., Suite 1050
Chicago, IL 60604
(312) 435-1050

View PDF

All Court electronic services have been restored. You may resume filing new case documents at this time. All Court Website Services are also restored.

Again, we extend our regrets and apology of the extended delay of service restoration.

Telephone Service has been Restored.
Work continues to restore your access to e-file, CM/ECF, and the Court's Live Website. It is unknown at this time when full services will be restored. If you have an emergency petition to file, please come to the courthouse and file it over the counter.

If any other document will be untimely due to this outage, you can include a statement with the filing that references this outage, as outlined in Paragraph II.G. of the Administrative Procedures. As an alternative you may file the document at the Courthouse.

Paragraph II.G. under Technical Failures: 

A Registrant whose filing is untimely because of a technical failure of the
System may seek appropriate relief from the judge, or if no case is
pending, from the Chief Judge. Relief will only be granted for cause. Any
difficulty connecting to the System and any other technical failure experienced
should be reported immediately to the ECF Help Desk. (Relief will not be given
because of technical failures in the Registrant’s office or equipment.)

We will continue to update you via list service e-mail and our COOP website.

E-filing is still unavailable as of this writing.

In addition, telephone service for the entire Dirksen Courthouse is down.

Staff and vendor support have worked on these problems throughout the night. We will provide updates as work continues.

Again, our apologies.

Despite the best effort of staff and vendor support, access to Live e-filing will be delayed. An essential component failed to perform upon restoration of electrical service to the Courthouse.

Though work continues, it is not expected that access for the purpose of filing will be restored until some time Monday, the 25th. In the meantime access to our replica system will continue for reference only, no docketing.

We apologize for the difficulty this causes you.

We will continue to update you via this website and e-mail list service messages.

During the weekend of June 22, 2012 - June 24, 2012 the Dirksen U. S. Courthouse will experience a significant planned power outage. Most if not all of the building will be without electrical power commencing Friday evening June 22. Power will not be restored until sometime Sunday, the 24th, late afternoon or early evening.

E-Filing, CM/ECF, will be removed from service Friday afternoon, the 22nd, at 4:00 PM CT and will be unavailable for the duration of power outage. Please exit the system no later than 4:00 PM CT.

During the outage our replica site will provide case information for reference purposes only, no docketing, no updates. The court's normal Website will be unavailable during this outage. We will have our COOP Website available. The COOP Website site will provide very basic information during the power outage, mainly status of the power outage.

We apologize for this serious inconvenience.
 

The United States Bankruptcy Court Northern District of Illinois is extremely pleased with the willingness of court users to take their time to complete our surveys. This is our 6th year administering our Customer Satisfaction Survey. The most recent results are posted on our website under Court Information>Clerks Office>Customer Satisfaction Survey Results - 2011.

It is that time of the year again. We want to provide the best possible service to our customers and we need to measure the progress towards those goals through the opinions of the people who use the court.

Please help us serve you and others better by completing our Customer Satisfaction Survey. The survey will be available on our internet site for the month of June. We will have staff members administering the survey in the outlying counties and Rockford on June 22, in Chicago June 19 - 25, and Kane County on June 28, 2012.

To take the survey please click here.

IN HIS ABSENCE, MOTIONS WILL BE HEARD BY
JUDGE BLACK IN COURTROOM 719

EMERGENCY MOTIONS WILL BE HEARD BY THE EMERGENCY JUDGE
(JUDGE GOLDGAR - COURTROOM 613)

View PDF version.

It's time for the annual Bankruptcy Judges' roundtable. Please join us at the June 20, 2012 lunch meeting of the CBA Bankruptcy and Reorganization Committee. 

View complete announcement.

IN HIS ABSENCE, MOTIONS WILL BE HEARD AS FOLLOWS

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13
JUDGE BARNES, COURTROOM 642

THURSDAY, JUNE 14
JUDGE DOYLE, COURTROOM 742

FRIDAY, JUNE 15
JUDGE WEDOFF, COURTROOM 744

EMERGENCY MOTIONS WILL BE HEARD BY THE EMERGENCY JUDGE (JUDGE GOLDGAR - COURTROOM 613)

View PDF version

Effective immediately, the Chapter 13 DuPage Confirmations will be moved from 11:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. 
All matters currently set for 11:30 a.m. on June 15, 2012, and thereafter, will be heard at 11:00 a.m.
http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/Judge/Cassling/DuPage_Motion_Schedule.cfm

Starting July 20, 2012, the afternoon motion times for the Lake County call will change. All times will be moved up one-half hour. The new times are as follows:

1:00 p.m. – Original motions
1:30 p.m. – Set matters
2:00 p.m. – Reaffirmation hearings

Motions for July 20, 2012, and thereafter must be noticed accordingly.

Please note that only the afternoon motion times for chapter 7 cases will change. The morning motion times for chapter 13 cases will remain the same.

The United States Bankruptcy Court is moving to the new U.S. Courthouse in Rockford, IL. Effective Monday, June 4, 2012, all bankruptcy filings will be accepted and court hearings will be conducted at the new location. The address will be:

U.S. Bankruptcy Court
Stanley J. Roszkowski U.S. Courthouse
327 South Church Street
Rockford, Illinois 61101

Clerk’s Office - Rm. 1100
Courtroom - Rm. 3100
Chambers - Rm. 4100

Please note that only the courthouse location is changing. Judge Barbosa’s hearing dates and motion times will remain the same. See: http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/Judge/Barbosa/

View PDF version

IT IS ORDERED that the Administrative Order 12-08 dated May 15, 2012 is vacated as of the effective date of this order.

Administrative Order 12-09

Pending cases assigned to Judge Sonderby have been reassigned to Judge Timothy Barnes and Judge Janet Baer.

Chapter 13 Cases Transferred - Judge Sonderby to Judge Baer

Cases Transferred - Judge Sonderby to Judge Barnes, All Chapters

Chapter 13 Cases Reassigned - Judge Baer to Judge Barnes

Administrative Order 12-06 Reassignment of Judge Janet S. Baer's Chapter 13 Cases.

Administrative Order 12-07 Reassignment of Judge Susan Pierson Sonderby's Cases

Administrative Order 12-08 Assignment of Cases

View Invitation

All services should now be available . Please let the court know if you continue to experience difficulty by calling the Court 's Main Number: (312) 435-5694 or by completing a customer contact form at : http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/contact/contact2.cfm#contact.

Again, our apology for this most serious inconvenience.

A catastrophic failure has occurred within our District regarding telecommunications. At this time we can only advise that Court, Circuit, Judiciary and Service Provider technical staff is working on the trouble . We will continue to update in this manner and via Website announcements .  Though our service may appear to be available while the problem is being worked on, please be advised that we will send an "Official" message when service is restored. 

For your information , the following limits of what is available and what is not working :
CM/ECF is available for opening new cases and for docketing. Though you may open new cases and review "Dockets" you will not receive Notices of Electronic Filing (NEF); You must use your CM/ECF login to perform the foregoing. You can not view document images . Your PACER login will not work.
We apologize for the difficulty this unfortunate failure is causing and assure you that all efforts are being made to correct the trouble .

Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee Spring Newsletter now available for your reading pleasure.

Complete details at New Members Announcement

Relocation to the new U.S. Courthouse at 327 South Church Street, Rockford, Illinois has been delayed.
All court hearings will continue to be heard in the Federal Building, 211 South Court Street, Room 115, Rockford, Illinois until further notice.
Please continue to schedule matters for 211 South Court Street, Room 115, Rockford, Illinois until further notice.
An announcement will be made as soon as the new relocation date is determined.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

On Saturday, March 31, 2012 the court will be performing some very important system maintenance from 8:00 AM until 12:00 PM CDT. As a result most of the systems will be shutdown except CM/ECF for outside filers. https://ecf.ilnb.uscourts.gov
We appreciate your patience and understanding.

CMECF will be removed from service at 4:00 PM CDT on Friday, March 23, 2012 for scheduled maintenance. The outage will affect filing and viewing of document and case information. The outage should be over by appropriately 8:00 PM and services restored. Another list service email will be sent when the system is available.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Rockford, IL is relocating

1. The United States Bankruptcy Clerks Office located at 211 South Court Street is moving to 327 South Church Street. Effective Monday, April 23, 2012, all bankruptcy filings will be accepted at the new location. The address will be:

Clerk’s Office
U.S. Bankruptcy Clerk’s Office
Stanley J. Roszkowski U.S. Courthouse
327 South Church Street
Room 1100
Rockford, Illinois 61101

2. Beginning Monday, April 23, 2012, The Honorable Manuel Barbosa will be hearing all Rockford matters in the New Stanley J. Roszkowski U.S. Courthouse. Judge Barbosa’s courtroom number will be 3100. All notices for motions/hearings scheduled for April 23, 2012 and thereafter must reflect the new courthouse address Any and all previously set hearings will also be heard at the new courthouse location. Please note that only the courthouse location is changing. Judge Barbosa’s hearing dates and motion times will remain the same. See:

http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/Judge/Barbosa/

Courtroom
U.S. Bankruptcy Courtroom
U.S. Courthouse
327 South Church Street
Courtroom 3100
Rockford, Illinois 61101

View PDF version

CBA Bankruptcy and Reorganization Committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 22 at 12:15 p.m. Panelists will be the Chapter 13 trustees from the Eastern Division, Marilyn O. Marshall, Tom Vaughn and Glenn Stearns.

IT IS ORDERED that all pending Cook County Chapter 7 cases, and any related Adversary Proceedings, on Calendars "H" and "W" are reassigned to Judge Janet S. Baer.

IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the clerk is authorized to modify the court's electronic case management records to conform with the provisions of this order; and

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that this order shall be effective on March 6, 2012.
View Administrative Order No. 12-04

The court has updated the Fillable Form Orders for Bankruptcy and Adversary cases. Additionally, a fillable version of the Order Allowing Compensation for Representation of Chapter 13 Debtor has been created. Please adopt the use of these forms as quickly as possible.

Fillable Form Orders - Bankruptcy and Adversary
Orders Allowing Compensation for Representation of Chapter 13 Debtor

Please be advised of the following changes to Judge Cox' and Judge Cassling’s courtroom locations. These new courtroom locations are to be selected when scheduling matters for hearing.

The Honorable Jacqueline P. Cox has been relocated to courtroom 680.

Effective March 6, 2012, the Honorable Donald R. Cassling will be located in courtroom 619.

Effective March 7, 2012, the Honorable Janet S. Baer will be located in courtroom 615.

Please check the individual judges' Webpages for hearing dates and times.

Effective June 1, 2012, the Lake County call will be heard at:
North Branch Court (Round Lake Beach)
1792 Nicole Lane
Round Lake Beach, Illinois
60073
Please note that only the courthouse location is changing. Lake County dates and motion times shown on Judge Goldgar's web page will remain the same. See http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/Judge/Goldgar/Motion_Adversary_Schedule_Lake_County.cfm
Motions and other matters to be noticed for June 1, 2012, and thereafter should be noticed for the new Round Lake Beach location instead of the current Park City location.

View Important Announcement

IT IS ORDERED that all pending Cook County Chapter l3 cases, and any related Adversary Proceedings, on Calendars "H" and "W" are reassigned to Judge Janet S. Baer.

IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the clerk is authorized to modify the court's electronic case management records to conform with the provisions of this order; and

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that this order shall be effective on March 5, 2012.
View Administrative Order No. 12-03

IT IS ORDERED that all pending DuPage County Chapter 7 and 13 cases, and any related Adversary Proceedings, on the calendar of Calendar "D" are reassigned to Judge Donald R. Cassling.

IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the clerk is authorized to modify the court's electronic case management records to conform with the provisions of this order; and

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that this order shall be effective with the close of business on February 24, 2012.
View Administrative Order No. 12-02

On Friday, February 17, 2012 from 8pm until Saturday, February 18 until 6pm, maintenance will be performed in the courthouse. We have performed careful analysis of the planned maintenance, and at this time, do not believe a system outage is necessary. However, we recommend proceeding filing with caution, as unexpected complications could arise.

If a problem arises where we must remove CM/ECF from service, a list service message will be sent to all registered list service recipients with guidance.

On Sunday, February 19th, from 9pm to 10pm, the public website www.ilnb.uscourts.gov will be undergoing maintenance. CM/ECF will be fully available. Please use this link during the maintenance window to access CM/ECF

https://ecf.ilnb.uscourts.gov

 

Effective immediately, the court has adopted for use a "Certificate of Relatedness" form. Please use this form when complying with the requirements of Local Bankruptcy Rule 1015-1.

IT IS ORDERED that the Administrative Order 11-2 dated March 08, 2011 is vacated as of the effective date of this order.
View Amended Administrative Order 12-01

 

IT IS ORDERED that the Administrative Order 11-2 dated March 08, 2011 is vacated as of the effective date of this order.
View Administrative Order 12-01

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY ALL CALENDAR W & H MATTERS WILL BE HEARD BY JUDGE DONALD R. CASSLING IN COURTROOM 615 UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

On Saturday, January 21, 2012 between 5:00 PM CST through 7:00 PM CST, you may experience trouble using a credit card for online payment. If you experience trouble, please re-try after 7:00 PM to complete the online payment process.

This will occur again on Saturday, February 4, 2012 between 5:00 PM CST through 7:00 PM CST, you may experience trouble using a credit card for online payment. If you experience trouble, please re-try after 7:00 PM to complete the online payment process.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

In DuPage County, new motions in Chapter 7 cases should be noticed for 9:00 a.m. If parties have already noticed motions for 9:15 a.m. for future hearing dates, the motions will be heard at that time. For all motions filed after January 13, 2012, new motions in chapter 7 cases must be noticed for 9:00 a.m.

This is to invite applications for a staff law clerk position with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago, with vacancy to be filled as soon as possible. Service will be from the time position is filled through September 30, 2012, with likely renewal for an additional 12 months, all subject to continuing approval of performance and Circuit approval.
 View complete announcement.

 

On Saturday, January 14, 2012 nationwide maintenance will be performed on the PACER/CM/ECF systems. Disruptions will begin at 8 AM CST and continue until 5 PM CST. 

During the maintenance period on Saturday, you may not be able to log in, or may experience intermittent outages. If you experience these symptoms, we ask that you wait for 30 minutes and try the PACER login again.

On Monday, January 16, 2012 the court will be performing essential maintenance on CM/ECF. This outage will begin at 8:00 AM and extend to 12:00 PM. Announcements and e-mail messages will be sent when service is restored.

We apologize for these inconveniences and appreciate your patience.

The Judicial Council of the Seventh Circuit is seeking applicants for a bankruptcy judge position for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Western Division headquartered in Rockford.
View Notice for complete information.

Judge Schmetterer will NOT be sitting on Thursday, January 5, and Friday, January 6, 2012. Please see the Courtroom Deputy for a continued date. Otherwise all matters will be continued to the week of January 9, 2012 (excluding Wednesday, January 11) if no continued date is requested. Counsel will be notified electronically of the new date accordingly to the Court's CM/ECF system.

 Judge Schmetterer will NOT be sitting on Wednesday, January 4, 2012. See the Courtroom Deputy for a continue date. Otherwise, all matters will be continued to January 11th, 18th, or 25th. Attorneys will receive a Notice of Electronic Filing for the specific date. Questions may be addressed to Judge Schmetterer's Courroom Deputy as 312 435-5655 or 312 435-5654.

In accordance with the Revised Administrative Procedures for Electronic Filing, effective January 1, 2012, there are now 2 Declarations for Electronic Filing. We have created 2 events in CM/ECF to match the titles of the Declarations:

Declaration Re: Electronic Filing of Petition and Accompanying Documents
Declaration Re: Electronic Filing for Documents Filed After Petition

The first Declaration is for the petition and accompanying documents. There is no change to this process, except that the form and name of the event have been revised. You will continue to docket the Declaration as a separate event. Only 1 Declaration is required for a joint case.

The second Declaration is for any document filed after the petition is filed, including those documents listed in Federal Bankruptcy Rule 1008, which must be signed by a person other than the Registrant filing the document. This is a new requirement effective January 1, 2012. The Declaration Re: Electronic Filing for Documents Filed After Petition must be signed by each person whose signature is required. The Declaration must be filed as a separate event. A Declaration should be filed for each document and related to that document. Only 1 Declaration is needed for a joint case.

New Revised Rules Regarding Signatures in Electronically Filed Documents, Effective January 1, 2012

If you have any questions, please contact our ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765.

A memorial service for Judge John D. Schwartz will be held on Friday, January 6, 2012, at 3:00 p.m. in the James Benton Parsons Memorial Courtroom, room 2525, 219 South Dearborn, Chicago, IL. All are invited to attend.

Effective January 1, 2012, Judge Wedoff will employ a new procedure for scheduling and conducting hearings on certain motions for relief from the automatic stay. The procedures will apply only in Chapter 7 cases and only to motions alleging that stay relief is warranted because the debtor has no equity in the property. The procedures will not apply to motions for relief from the stay in Chapter 11 or Chapter 13 proceedings or in motions in Chapter 7 cases where the request for relief is based on something other than the debtor’s lack of equity in the property.
View Procedures

Please see Announcement of December 22, 2011 "Reassignment of Judge Squires' Pending Cases" for a detailed explanation of the reassignment rationale. To see a detailed list of cases reassigned click on the following link.

To provide an opportunity to make essential systems changes and perform the case reassignments associated to Judge Squires' retirement, we will remove access to CM/ECF for approximately 1 hour, 6:00 PM until approximately 7:00 PM.

Apologies for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.

At their regular monthly meeting in December,the bankruptcy judges for the Northern District of Illinois approved  a major change  in the Administrative Procedures  for the Case Management/Electronic Case Filing System. The change concerns signatures on electronically filed documents, and it revises the changes made in November.

The new procedures, effective January 1, 2012, will again allow one Declaration Regarding Electronic Filing for Petition to be filed covering the petition and all documents filed with the petition. The form has been revised, but the basic system that has been in place for petitions and accompanying documents will be continued.

There is a new procedure for documents filed after the petition.  For such documents, that must be signed by someone  other  than the Registrant filing the document , the former requirement was to scan into the system the page of the document bearing the signature.  The new procedure will require use of a Declaration Regarding Electronic Filing for Documents Filed After Petition.  Instead of signing the document being filed, the person whose signature is required will sign a different Declaration form specifically referring to the document.  The forms have been revised accordingly.

This is the first of two messages associated to the retirement of Judge Squires.

As you  know, Judge John H. Squires will be retiring from the bench at the end of 2011 after 24 years of distinguished  service.

The following explains the court's plan to reassign Judge Squires' pending cases upon his retirement.  All case reassignments and web page changes will occur at the "Close of Business" on December  23, 2011.

Pending DuPage Chapter 7 and 13 cases and related Adversary proceedings will be reassigned to a temporary calendar, Calendar "D".   A temporary web page, Calendar "D" will be used to communicate motion and scheduling requirements until a new judge is assigned the DuPage call.  This will occur sometime after new judges take the bench.  Please see Calendar "D" Internet web pages for more specific information.

Pending Cook/Chicago Chapter 13 cases and related  Adversary proceedings will be reassigned to temporary calendars, Calendar "W" and Calendar "H".  Calendar "W" will be heard by Judge Wedoff on Wednesdays.  Calendar "H" will be heard by Judge Hollis on Thursdays. Temporary web pages for Calendar "W" and Calendar "H" will be used  to communicate  motion and scheduling requirements until a new judge is assigned,  Please see Calendar "W" and Calendar "H" Internet web pages for more specific information.

Pending Chicago Chapter 7 and all pending Chapter 11 cases and their related Adversary proceedings will be reassigned to Judges Sonderby, Cox and Goldgar.

Pending Chapter 7 cases from counties other than Cook or DuPage will be reassigned to the Judge who hears cases for that county.

A docket entry, "Order Case reassigned  ... ", will be made to the docket of each case.  Affected parties will receive a Notice of Electronic Filing.  In addition, a list of all reassigned cases will be posted on Judge Squires' Internet web page. 

Chicago Court Calls scheduled for Tuesday, January 3, 2012, Wednesday, January 4, 2012 and Thursday, January 5, 2012 are cancelled.

The Court will re-notice the January 4, 2012 Confirmation Hearings to Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 10:30 AM for Calendar "W" or to Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 12:00 PM for Calendar "H".  All other matters scheduled for January 4, 2012 will be heard on January 11, 2012 or January 12, 2012.

Chicago Chapter 7 and 11 matters will be continued to a date and time the reassigned judge normally hears such matters.  A Notice of Electronic filing will be sent which will advise you of the continued date and time.  If you have any questions contact the appropriate Courtroom Deputy.

A second list service message will be issued after the foregoing changes have been made.

Thank you for your attention.

The court will be performing several essential pieces of system maintenance over the weekend. Though most of this work will be transparent to external court users an important point, the court's Internet site will be removed from service. In case you have not book-marked the CM/ECF login page, please use this link during the affected period of time or any time you wish to go directly to the CM/ECF login page:
https://ecf.ilnb.uscourts.gov/
The affected period of time is Saturday, December 10, from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.

View the revised announcement dated 12/22/2011
At their regular monthly meeting in November, the bankruptcy judges for the Northern District of Illinois approved changes in the Administrative Procedures for the Case Management/Electronic Case Filing system. The major change concerns signatures required on electronically filed documents. If a document must be signed by anyone other than the Registrant filing the document, a Declaration Regarding Electronic Filing must be filed for each person whose signature is required. The Administrative Procedures no longer differentiate between petitions and documents filed later. Thus, if a joint petition is filed, two Declarations must be filed, one for each debtor. Another big change concerns documents filed after the petition that must be signed (for example, amended schedules). Effective January 1, 2012, instead of requiring a scanned signature on the document, the new procedure requires a new Declaration Regarding Electronic Filing for each new document. The form has been revised accordingly.

The Proof of Claim Form has been revised effective December 1, 2011. Please begin using the revised Proof of Claim form, the new attachment and the new supplements for all cases.

Official Form 10 (Proof of Claim) is amended to clarify that, consistent with Rule 3001(c), writings supporting a claim or evidencing perfection of a security interest – not just summaries – must be attached to the proof of claim. The amended form includes a new section for reporting a uniform claim identifier which is used by some creditors and chapter 13 trustees to facilitate payments by electronic fund transfers. The signature box is revised to include a declaration under penalty of perjury by the person who completes the form.

Form 10 (Attachment A), Form 10 (Supplement 1), and Form 10 (Supplement 2) are three new forms for a claim secured by a security interest in the debtor’s principal residence that take effect on December 1, 2011, along with pending amendments to Rule 3001 and new Rule 3002.1 which the forms implement.

Form 10 (Attachment A) would be filed with the proof of claim as required by new Rule 3001(c)(2). The form includes a statement of the principal and interest due as of the petition date; a statement of prepetition fees, expenses, and charges; and a statement of the amount necessary to cure a default as of the petition date.

Form 10 (Supplement 1) would be used by the holder of a home mortgage claim to provide the notice required by new Rule 3002.1(b) of any escrow account payment adjustment, interest payment change, and any other mortgage payment change while a chapter 13 case is pending.

Form 10 (Supplement 2) would be used in chapter 13 cases to provide notice of the date incurred and amount of any postpetition fees, expenses, and charges.

To view all the new B10 forms: http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/Forms/index.cfm#b10

Click here for background information on the Mortgage Payment changes.

Click here for instructions on how to file the new supplements.
 

The District Court has approved amendments to the Local Bankruptcy Rules. The revised rules will be effective January 1, 2012.
View revised Local Rules

The court will be performing several essential pieces of system maintenance over the next two weekends. Though most of this work will be transparent to external court users an important point, the court's Internet site will be removed from service. In case you have not book-marked the CM/ECF login page, please use this link during the affected period of time or any time you wish to go directly to the CM/ECF login page:
https://ecf.ilnb.uscourts.gov/
Again the affected period of time is Saturday, December 3, from 8:00 AM until early afternoon, Saturday the 3rd and Saturday, December 10, from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Judge John H. Squires and his staff invite you to a reception in honor of his retirement on his last (Chicago) day on the bench. Thursday, December 22, 2011, immediately following his call that day. Any well wishes, comments, fond memories, photos, or crazy courtroom stories you would like to share? Please email linda_montano@ilnb.uscourts.gov.
View Invitation

The BCLC's November 2011 Newsletter is now available for your viewing pleasure.

Please Join Us in Celebrating the 2011 Holiday Season.
View invitation for complete information.

Updated versions of the Model Chapter 13 Plan have been posted. Use of these forms is required effective 12/01/2011.
These forms include the necessary modifications for compliance with Rule 3002.1.
View New Model Chapter 13 Forms

The Court will be updating CM/ECF commencing Thursday evening and continuing through, under best circumstances, Saturday evening, and possibly through Sunday.

During the CM/ECF outage our replica system will be available for reference purposes only, no updates can be allowed.

We will update you when service is restored.

Thank you for your understanding.

The next Chicago Bar Association Bankruptcy and Reorganization committee meeting will be held on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 from 12:15  to 1:30 p.m. A panel of speakers will go over how to determine the proper exemptions to use, and what exemptions may be used other than typical exemptions. Schwab v. Reilly will also be discussed. Please visit www.chicagobar.org for further information.

In order to permit more time with family and friends, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois will be closed on Friday, November 25, 2011, in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Any matter previously set for November 25, 2011 is continued to November 28, 2011 or another date set by the judge presiding in the matter.
View Administrative Order 11-04 

After the court updates to Version 4.1 of CM/ECF over the Veterans day weekend, November 10th through November 13th, there will be a change in how the debtor's attorney will receive 341 notices for their client's cases. Currently, debtors' attorneys receive the section 341 notice by notice of electronic filing (NEF) with the debtor's redacted Social Security number (SSN) [last four digits], and by U.S. Mail through the Bankruptcy Noticing Center (BNC) with the debtor's full SSN [all nine digits].

Once the Bankruptcy Court migrates to Version 4.1, debtors' attorneys will no longer receive the paper copy of the section 341(a) notice currently sent through the U.S. Mail. Instead, the BNC will send debtors' attorneys an email containing a secure hyperlink to the unredacted section 341 notice in lieu of the paper notice. The BNC will send one summary email per day containing hyperlinks to one or more notices (for example, an attorney filing five cases on the same day should expect to receive one email containing hyperlinks to the notices in all five cases). Each hyperlink will provide one free look to the full section 341(a) notice for that case.

This change is being made nationally as Courts migrate to Version 4.1

If you have any questions, please contact our ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765.

The Court will be installing a new version of CM/ECF beginning on Thursday, November 10, 2011 and continuing through the weekend. CM/ECF will be removed from service at 4:00 pm on Thursday , November 10, 2011. Service is expected to be restored no later than Monday, November 14, 2011.

This version of CM/ECF includes many enhancements and changes to file structures. All filers are encouraged to test events that they normally file , especially those of you who use any automated programs.
If you wish to try the new version of CM/ECF you may do so by visiting https://ecf-test.ilnb.uscourts.gov/ and logging-in. The same login name and password you use in our Live area will work in the Test area. Please be certain you are in the TEST area. Our test area will look like the image in the following link: CM/ECF Test Area image. If it does not, you are not in the TEST area. PLEASE check the url and be sure you are in the TEST area when testing the new release.

Please see the links below for additional information. 4.2 Changes will be effective December 1, 2011.

Notes for Pacer Users: (4.1) and (4.2)
Overview of 4.1 Changes from Procedure Manual www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/madcap/content/cm_ecf_release_4.1/cmecf_release_4.1.htm

If you have any questions, please contact our ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765.

View Updated Schedule of Fees - 28 U.S.C. 1930

On Monday, October 17th, 2011, the court will be performing an important upgrade. The following services will be unavailable from, approximately, 6:30 am to 7:00 am.

Outside CM/ECF(PACER)
Outside Training CM/ECF
Outside Test CM/ECF
Public website (www.ilnb.uscourts.gov)
Training registration Trustee Data Interchange

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Electrical work planned in the Courthouse, 10/07/11 - 10/09/11, will require a significant disruption of access to electronic filing this weekend. Access to the court's website and electronic filing services will not be available commencing Friday, the 7th, at 4:00 PM. Service will not be restored until the afternoon of Sunday the 9th. Announcements and e-mail messages will be sent when service is restored.

During the power outage access to CM/ECF will be for reference purposes only (no filings).

https://ecf.ilnb.uscourts.gov/

We apologize for this unavoidable inconvenience.

Judge Schmetterer will NOT be sitting on Thursday, September 29, 2011. See the Courtroom Deputy for a continue date. Otherwise, all matters will be continued to Monday, October 3, 2011 at the originally scheduled time.

Effective Friday, September 30, 2011, registered CM/ECF Email recipients will no longer receive
paper notices sent by the Court. The only exception will be the 341 notice since it contains the full
social security notice. For all other notices sent by the Court, the sole method of receiving notices will
be through the CM/ECF Notice of Electronic Filing. It is critical that you maintain your account with
up-to-date-information, including a valid Email address.
We ask every registered user to review your account and verify that all the information is correct.
Please check all Email addresses, including secondary Email addresses, Please delete or update
any Email addresses that are no longer valid.
Please click here for instructions on updating your account.
http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/madcap/content/utilities_events/maintain_your_ecf_account.htm
If you have any questions, please contact our CM/ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765.

Regarding Disclosure of Agreements Between Debtors and their Attorneys in All Cases and Compensation in Chapter 13 Cases

View Second Amended General Order 11-02

On Friday, September 16th, 2011, we will perform an important upgrade. The following services will be unavailable from, approximately, 6:30 am to 7:00 am.

Outside CM/ECF(PACER)
Outside Training CM/ECF
Outside Test CM/ECF
Public website (www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/ )
Training registration
Trustee Data Interchange

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Effective Wednesday ,September 21, 2011, we will no longer include a Proof of Claim form with 341
notices or Chapter 7 notices establishing a claims deadline. This change has been mandated by our
Administrative office as a cost-savings measure and after a study determined that less than 5% of the
Proof of Claims included with the Court's notices were returned. The majority of the claims that are filed
are created electronically by the creditor's software or though other electronic forms creation tools.
Proofs of Claim will be available on the US Court's website , www.uscourts.gov, on our website,
www.ilnb.uscourts.gov or at our Intake counters.

If you have any questions, please contact our Customer Service team at 312-435-5694

Form Orders 23a and 23b, "ORDER ALLOWING COMPENSATION FOR REPRESENTATION OF CHAPTER 13 DEBTOR" have been updated to default all field dollar values to $0.00 unless replaced by filer with a dollar amount.

Effective immediately, begin use of the version of the form orders identified as follows:

Form Order 23a           Rev: comp13pre 20110822
Form Order 23b           Rev: comp13post 20110815

Use the following link to obtain copies of the most up to date forms and cease the use of early versions of these forms.

http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/Forms/Form_Orders.cfm#forms23ab

On Thursday, July 21, 2011, CM/ECF will be removed from service at 4:00 PM. Access and service will be restored at approximately 6:30 PM; outage duration, 2 hours and 30 minutes.
We apologize for this inconvenience and assure you we take this action only to address a very serious issue. It is our greatest desire to insure system stability and availability.

See Courtroom Deputy for a continue date. Otherwise, all matters will be continued to July 26, 2011

On Thursday, July 14, 2011, the court will be performing an important upgrade. As a result the following services will be unavailable from, approximately, 7:00 am and 7:30 am.

CM/ECF(PACER)
Public website (www.ilnb.uscourts.gov)
Training CM/ECF
Training registration

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Pursuant to section 2071(b) of Title 28 of the United States Code regarding appropriate public notice and opportunity for comment, public notice is hereby given that the Court has approved for publication a proposed amendment to the following local rule: Local Rules of the Bankruptcy Court

Notice of Proposal to Amend Local Rules
Proposed Amended Rules

Effective July 1, 2011, Judge Bruce Black will become the Chief Judge of the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois, replacing the current Chief, Judge Carol Doyle. Chief Judge Black will continue to hear all matters assigned to the Joliet Call, which includes cases filed in Will, Grundy, Kendall and LaSalle counties on Friday. His chambers will be moving from the sixth floor to the seventh floor. The new courtroom number is 719, and the chambers is located in room 756. All pending, previously assigned Eastern division cases (with a few exceptions) that do not include the four counties making up the Joliet call will be re-assigned to other judges in the Eastern Division immediately. If your case is affected, you will receive a notice from the Court.

Judge Bruce W. Black will hear all matters for Chicago in COURTROOM 719. Please notice any new motion that is to be heard after July 1, 2011 for Courtroom 719. All matters previously noticed and/or continued for a date after July 1, 2011 will likewise be heard in Courtroom 719.

We at the United States Bankruptcy Court Northern District of Illinois are extremely pleased with the willingness of court users to take their time to complete our surveys. This is our 5th year administering our Customer Satisfaction Survey. The most recent results are posted on our website  under Court Information-Clerks Office- Customer Satisfaction Survey Results.
As a result of past survey feedback, we have expanded the hours of service, implemented a language translation service for our website, and have changed language and access information on our website, to just name a few.

It is that time of the year again. We want to provide the best possible service to our customers and we need to measure the progress towards those goals through the opinions of the people who use the court.

Please help us serve you and others better by completing our Customer Satisfaction Survey. The survey will be available on our internet site for the month of June. We will have staff members administering the survey in the outlying counties and Rockford on June 24, in Chicago the week of June 27, and Kane County on June 30, 2011.

To take the survey please click here.

The Judicial Council of the Seventh Circuit is now seeking applicants for three bankruptcy judge positions for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Subsequent to the notice seeking applicants for the positions currently occupied by retiring Bankruptcy Judge John Squires and Bankruptcy Judge Jack Schmetterer who will continue as a senior judge, Bankruptcy Judge Susan Pierson Sonderby announced her retirement next May. The committee has therefore extended the deadline for applications until July 5, 2011. All applicants will be considered for all three positions.
Click here for complete information

CM/ECF LIVE will be down for important maintenance at 6PM CDT on 06/08/2011. You will not be able to file or view documents during the outage. We expect the outage will take approximately 1 hour, with the system operational at 7PM (it may be available before 7:00PM). Another Newsletter email will be sent when the systems is fully operational.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Thursday, August 18, 2011
White Sox v. Cleveland Indians
Tickets: $62
(includes game, food and drinks)
Patio Opens: 5:40 pm
First Pitch: 7:10 pm

TO PURCHASE TICKETS, PLEASE CONTACT
Nate Rugg (nrugg@ag-ltd.com) or
Robin Maatman (rm@ag-ltd.com)
Adelman & Gettleman, Ltd.
53 W. Jackson Blvd., Suite 1050
Chicago, IL 60604
(312) 435-1050
View PDF

The times at which matters will be heard in Lake County will change for four dates only: Aug. 26, Sept. 16, Oct. 7 and Oct 28, On those dates only , matters will be heard at the following times:

9:00. New chapter 13 motions, including new trustee motions to dismiss
9:30. Chapter 13 continued motions and status hearings on Ch 13 adversaries
10:00. Chapter 13 confirmation hearings
10:30. New chapter 7 motions
11:00. Continued chapter 7 matters, status hearings on chapter 7 adversaries, hearings on reaffirmation agreements and trustee final reports.

Beginning on the November 18, 2011 hearing date, all matters will return to their usual scheduled times.

Thank you for your cooperation.

The court has updated the fillable proposed order forms for Bankruptcy and Adversary cases. Additionally, a fillable version of the Order Allowing Compensation for Representation of Chapter 13 Debtor has been created. Please adopt the use of these forms as quickly as possible.

Fillable Form Orders - Bankruptcy and Adversary
Orders Allowing Compensation for Representation of Chapter 13 Debtor

The Judges, Clerk and staff are very appreciative of your efforts to adopt and implement the "fillable" order process. Based on feedback received from our filer base here are a few suggestions that will help you and the court:

When preparing your proposed order choose the "Save As" option in Adobe Acrobat using an appropriate file name. DO NOT PRINT THE ORDER TO PDF OR PAPER. Doing either will caused the loss of the form's fillability and its field names, which are essential for the process to work properly.

Do not change the form structure. This means do not change the field names or field locations. If your firm has a specific, special need regarding the form design please contact us at:

 http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/e-order/feedback/feedback.cfm

We will discuss your suggestions and needs to see if we can help.

Judge Schmetterer will NOT be sitting on Wednesday, May 11, 2011. See the Courtroom Deputy for a continue date. Otherwise, all matters will be continued to May 18, 2011.

The BCLC's April 2011 Newsletter is now available for your viewing pleasure.

The Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee is looking for practicing attorneys who are interested in serving on the Committee. There will be several positions with two-year terms open to attorneys for the Committee’s next term, which commences in June, 2011. The Committee is composed of approximately twelve attorneys in private practice and includes representatives from the Office of the US Trustee and the Chapter 13 Trustees. The Chief Judge of the Bankruptcy Court and several of her colleagues are regular guests of the Committee at the monthly meetings.

The Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee was formed to promote communications about court procedures, etiquette, filings and other issues; to assist the Court and attorneys in creating a more efficient environment; and to represent a diverse group of bankruptcy attorneys from the Chicago area. Additionally, the Committee members develop, participate in and support educational programs concerning issues affecting the bench, attorneys, financial institutions and consumers, including providing support for the local CARE Program. The Committee also organizes and sponsors social events to allow greater interaction between the Court and the attorneys who appear before it.

If you are interested, please send a letter describing your professional background and expressing interest in serving on the Committee. You may also send any other information that may be helpful to the Committee in the selection process. If you have any questions about the Committee’s functions, please contact one of the current members of the Committee. You can find the contact information for the Committee members under the link for the Committee on the Bankruptcy Court’s website.

Please submit your information to either Scott Alsterda or Nathan Curtis no later than Friday, May 13, 2011 per the contact information below:

R. Scott Alsterda
Ungaretti & Harris LLP 3
500 Three First National Plaza
Chicago, IL 60602
Tel: 312.977.9203
Fax: 312.977.4405
Email: rsalsterda@uhlaw.com

and/or

Nathan E. Curtis
Geraci Law, LLC
55 East Monroe, Suite 3400
Chicago, IL 60603
Fax: 877.247.1960
Email: nat@geracilaw.com

General Order 11-02 has been amended to add language emphasizing that the requirements in Paragraph 1 regarding all agreements between debtors and their attorneys apply in all chapters. Additional language has also been added to emphasize that the requirements of Paragraphs 2 and 3 apply only in chapter 13 cases. The amendments do not alter the substance of the original order so Amended General Order 11-02 is effective on April 22, 2011.

View Amended General Order 11-02

Effective Friday, April 15, 2011, the event, Reaffirmation Agreement, will be modified. You will now be asked to select whether the debtor's attorney has signed the agreement. The option you choose will appear on the final screen. so you can verify that the correct selection was made. If the final docket text is not correct, please back up and choose the correct option.

This event is currently available in our CM/ECF TEST https://ecf-test.ilnb.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl area in case you want to review it. Your LIVE CM/ECF login and password will work in our Test environment. The modification will be moved to CM/ECF LIVE , Friday morning, April 15, 2011.

If you have any questions, please contact our ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765.

Effective Friday, April 15, 2011, the event, Request for Service will be modified to allow you to add a new creditor record. An additional screen will display. Please enter the name and address of the creditor on this screen. This will insure the timely updating of your request.

This event is currently available in our CM/ECF TEST https://ecf-test.ilnb.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl area in case you want to review it. Your LIVE CM/ECF login and password will work in our Test environment. The modification will be moved to CM/ECF LIVE , Friday morning, April 15, 2011.

If you have any questions, please contact our ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765.

Effective Friday, April 15, 2011, the event, Amended Petition will be modified. This event will now display a list of items that you can choose to identify the information being amended. This change is being made to minimize the information you need to add and achieve greater consistency in the docket text.

We have also added a reminder to this event about amending the Social Security Number. An amended petition is only required if you are correcting the last 4 digits of the Social Security Number. In accordance with Bankruptcy Rule 1009, if the Social Security Number listed on the B- 21, Statement of Social Security Number was incorrect, an Amended Statement must be filed.
This event is currently available in our CM/ECF TEST area and will be moved to CM/ECF LIVE , Friday morning, April 15, 2011.

For guidance on completing an amended petition, please review the instructions that accompany the Voluntary Petition. http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/Forms/

If you have any questions, please contact our ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765.

The Judicial Council of the Seventh Circuit is seeking applicants for two bankruptcy judge positions for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to fill the positions of Judge Squires, who will retire as of January 1, 2012, and Judge Schmetterer, who will go on recall status as of January 1, 2012.
Click this link for the detailed announcement

Effective April 15, 2011, the Court-approved retention agreement and Form 23, Attorneys Application for Compensation in Chapter 13 cases, has been revised. These forms may be used immediately, but must be used in all cases filed on or after April 22, 2011.
View Chapter 13 Forms

The Bankruptcy Court has issued General Order 11-02 that contains important changes regarding attorneys' agreements with debtors in all cases and compensation of debtor's attorneys in Chapter 13 cases. The General Order provides, among other things, that:

1. Every agreement entered between a debtor and an attorney for the debtor in all bankruptcy cases must be in writing and must be filed with the Rule 2016(b) statement. This includes but is not limited to wage assignments and security agreements.

2. Flat Fees under Local Rule 5082-2 will be awarded only if the debtor and the attorney for the debtor have entered into the Court-Approved Retention Agreement without any modification and only if no other agreement has been entered between the debtor and the attorney.

3. This order is effective April 15, 2011.

View General Order 11-02

Chief Judge James F. Holderman announced that  as of July 1, 2011 Judge Bruce W. Black has been selected by the judges of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to serve as the next Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois at the expiration of Chief Judge Carol A. Doyle’s term on June 30, 2011.

View complete announcement.

The correct event to use when filing a Certificate of Service for the Summons and Complaint, that is successfully served, is Summons Service Executed. This event now requires that you select the name of a defendant from the party list, instead of typing the name in a text box. Please note that only the name of a defendant should be entered.

We have also modified the Certificate of Service to include lines to enter the title and number of the Adversary proceeding.

As a reminder, a copy of the Summons should be attached to the Certificate of Service. Please note, that effective March 1, 2011, the Summons will include the name of the defendant. In a proceeding with multiple defendants, a Summons will be issued for each defendant.

When filing the Certificate of Service, please verify that the correct Summons is filed for each defendant. The name of the defendant on the Summons and the Certificate of Service and the name of the defendant selected from the party list should match.

A similar modification has been made for the Summons Service Unexecuted event. This event should ONLY be used if service of the Summons and Complaint was NOT successful.

For guidance on the completion of the Certificate of Service, please review the instructions that accompany Official Form 250(A), Adversary Summons, on our website.

If you have any questions, please contact our ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765.

Effective Tuesday, March 1, 2011, the electronic Summons created in CM/ECF when an Adversary complaint is filed, will be modified. The Summons will now include an additional line directly above the first paragraph to identify the defendant. The line reads To: Name of Defendant. If there are multiple defendants, a Summons will be created for each defendant.

View a sample PDF of the new format.

Please review this information with your staff to insure that the correct Summons is served and filed in CM/ECF.

The same format will be followed if an Alias Summons needs to be issued.

Official Forms 250A (Adversary Summons) and 250D (Third Party Summons) have been modified to reflect this change and are available on our website. The Certificate of Service attached to each Summons now includes lines to enter the title and number of the Adversary proceeding.

If you have any questions, please contact our ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765.

Due to a major telecommunication upgrade early this morning, credit card payment processing was interrupted. As of 12:40 PM, today, February 15, 2011, payment processing has been restored. If you were affected by this failure you may make your payment for outstanding fees by logging in to CM/ECF and selecting menus: UTILITIES>Internet Payments Due.

Our apology for this inconvenience.

Effective March 15, 2011, The Administrative Procedures for the Case Management/Electronic Case Filing system have been amended as follows:

Section II.A.1.b., formerly "reserved" now reads: Time for Filing Motions
A motion must be filed no later than the date on which the motion is served.

View Procedures as amended 03-15-2011

We've recently conducted a review of all the Motions to Dismiss that have been filed during the past several months. Our sample revealed that in almost 10% of the filings, the title of the motion and proposed order did not match the event that was filed. Generally, the titles were incomplete. As an example, the event Motion to Dismiss for Failure to Make Plan Payments was chosen, but the titles of the motion and order were Motion/Order to Dismiss.

There are 7 Motions to Dismiss,including a " generic" Motion to Dismiss. The " generic" Motion to Dismiss should be used when none of the other options apply . You may add additional text to the " generic" Motion to Dismiss event , but should only do so if that language is included in the title of your motion and proposed order . If you prefer, you can title your motion and proposed order just Motion/Order to Dismiss and NOT add any additional text to the generic Motion to Dismiss event . If you chose any other option , the title of your motion and proposed order must specifically match the event you have filed . If not, the entry will be annotated as incorrect and we will ask you to refile so that the PDF is consistent with the docket text .

Each of these motions is specifically coded and analyzed by our Administrative Office in Washington to report to Congress on the impact of BAPCPA. They are national options that all Bankruptcy Courts have been asked to provide in CM/ECF, so accurate statistics can be gathered.

Dismiss and Bar Debtor for a Period
Dismiss and Vacate Discharge Dismiss for Abuse 707(b)
Dismiss for Failure to File Required Documents under Section 521(a)(1)
Dismiss for Failure to File Taxes under Section 521(j)(1)
Dismiss for Failure to Make Plan Payments
Dismiss for Other Reasons( our generic option; none of the other options apply)

To allow time for you to review this information with your staff and make any adjustments to your internal practices, we will continue to place a courtesy call if the specific Motion to Dismiss has not been used. Beginning March 1, 2011,we will ask you to refile any Motion to Dismiss event that is not consistent with the PDFs. We urge you to ask any questions and seek whatever clarification you need before submitting your filing, so we can minimize the refiling of these motions. If you have any questions, please contact our ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765.

The Court will be open for business, Thursday, February 3, 2011. Please visit specific judge web pages for scheduling updates.

Thank your for your understanding regarding our closure, Wednesday, due to the hazardous weather conditions.

Due to potential blizzard conditions, the Bankruptcy Court (Dirksen and Rockford Courthouses) will be closed Wednesday, February 2, 2011. The court will continue to provide updates via its Internet website and list service e-mail message. Please check for updated information at the court's Internet website. All information regarding the court's Thursday opening status will be posted by 6:00 P.M., Wednesday evening.

Please check individual Judge web pages for scheduling updates.

Starting on January 14, 2011 and continuing until December 31, 2011, all matters in DuPage County in which the Springer, Brown, Covey, Gaertner and David LLC firm or any lawyer affiliated with the Springer Brown firm is a party in interest or represents a party in interest will be heard in Joliet, Illinois by Judge Bruce W. Black.

View Amended General Order 11-01

Due to an urgent PACER system upgrade CM/ECF will not be available this Saturday, January 15, 2011, between the hours of, approximately, 07:00 AM and 04:00 PM CST.
We apologize for this short notice and for any inconvenience it may cause you.

Starting on January 14, 2011 and continuing until December 31, 2011, all matters in DuPage County in which the Springer, Brown, Covey, Gaertner and David LLC firm or any lawyer affiliated with the Springer Brown firm is a party in interest or represents a party in interest will be heard in Joliet, Illinois by Judge Bruce W. Black.

View Amended General Order 11-01
View General Order 11-01

CM/ECF will not be available Saturday, January 15, 2011. There will be no interruption of access to CM/ECF this weekend, January 8 - 9, 2011. Saturday, January 15, 2011 CM/ECF will not be available between the hours of, approximately, 07:00 AM and 05:00 PM CST.

Many apologies for this confusion. Due to the short warning provided earlier it was felt appropriate to provide a one week advice.

Thank you for your understanding.

Due to continued increase in the number of cases filed in the Northern District of Illinois, we have adjusted the beginning number of cases filed in the Western Division (Rockford) for calendar year 2011 to begin at 80,000. Thus all cases filed in the Western Division will begin at 80001.
Case numbering for cases filed in the Eastern Division remain unchanged. As always, the two-digit year shall always precede the number assigned.

View Interim Local Rule for complete details.

At 9:00 PM tonight, CM/ECF will be down for some important maintenance.
We expect the outage will take approximately a half hour, until 9:30 PM.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

The event, Request for Service of Notice - No Paper, will be modified Monday, December 20, 2010 to require a PDF. At the present time, this event does NOT require that you attach a PDF. We are making this change for Quality Control purposes to insure that the correct case is updated.

The PDF should be titled Request for Service of Notice.

If you have any questions about creating the PDF, please review that process within your office.

If you have any questions about this change, please contact our ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765.

You can now add the Debtor Name and Case Number to this form. Please begin using the modified form and remember to complete the name and case number, whenever you are filing the Model Retention Agreement as an individual entry. 

If you have any questions, please call our ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765.

On November 20, 2010, the CM/ECF Notice of Electronic Filing (NEF) email system was changed for the entire federal judiciary. This was expected to be a transparent change but if you are missing any NEF's, please look at the "SPAM/Junk" folder in your email system. 

Please also add  the email address "USBC_ILNB@ilnb.uscourts.gov" or the "ilnb.uscourts.gov" domain to the whitelist of your respective email programs to ensure deliver of the NEFs emails.

If you are encountering issues with the NEF, please use the contact
system http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/contact/contact2.cfm.

Effective, October 15, 2010, use of this model plan is mandatory for case filed on 10/15/2010 and later. It may also be used for any case filed prior to October 15, 2010.
Amended Chapter 13 Model Plan.

The BCLC's November 2010 Newsletter is now available for your viewing pleasure.

Please Join Us in Celebrating the 2010 Holiday Season. 
View invitation for complete information.

The event, Answer to Complaint, has been modified effective Friday, November 19, 2010, based on a request of a customer. The event now allows you to indicate that a Jury Demand is being requested. Please remember to include " and Jury Demand" in the title of your pdf, when it applies.

We also have a separate event titled Jury Demand, located in the "Other" category, so you can file a Jury Demand as a separate document, when needed.

If you have any questions, please call our ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765.

Effective Friday, November 19, 2010, if you need to file a proposed order AFTER a motion or request for hearing has been filed, please use the event, "Proposed Order", instead of the event, " Attachment". No additional text is required. This event is located in the " Other" category. Please relate the proposed order to the appropriate motion or hearing.

There is no change to the process of attaching a proposed order WITH a motion or request for hearing. Please be sure to use the description, "Proposed Order" from the list of pre-defined attachments. No further description is needed.

This change is being made to easily identify proposed orders filed after the motion or request for hearing to facilitate the electronic processing of orders.

As a reminder, please follow these guidelines for filing proposed orders.

• Every motion should be accompanied by a proposed order.
• The title of the order should match the title of the motion and be consistent with one of the events in the motion category, as outlined in the Administrative Procedures for Electronic Filing.
• Please do not add the word " Proposed" to the title of the PDF.

If you a have any questions, please call our ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765

On Friday, November 26, 2010 we will be performing some important maintenance to CM/ECF and the public website. CM/ECF is expected to be unavailable from 8:00 am to 12:00 PM. The public website, www.ilnb.uscourts.gov, is expected to be unavailable from 8:00 am to 10:00 am.

We will send email notifications via the newsletter service when the system has been restored. You can subscribe to the newsletter service at this location http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/EmailListService/index.cfm.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

In order to permit more time with family and friends, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois will be closed on Friday, November 26, 2010 in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Any matter previously set for November 26, 2010 is continued to November 29, 2010 or another date set by the judge presiding in the matter.
View Administrative Order 10-07

Please use the newly adopted "Order to Redact" forms which have been posted on the court's internet site when asking the court to redact private information filed on documents in violation of Bankruptcy Rule 9037 (a). The use of these forms is effective immediately.

Effective November 1, 2010 use of the court's fillable order forms is required.

Please use the new forms for all proposed orders other than those listed on the court's web site under the "Local Bankruptcy Forms and Orders"  page. We will advise you as Local Form Orders are converted to the new standard.

The fillable form orders have not yet been adapted to accommodate "Agreed Orders". Please continue to process those as you presently do.

Please share your thoughts and questions by using our "E-Order Feedback" tool. You can find the feedback tool and much more information at
http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/e-order

This form must be used for all cases filed on or after December 1, 2010, but use may begin immediately.

View form

Use of these forms, Bankruptcy and Adversary, will be required for all motions and proposed orders presented on and after November 1, 2010. Based on feedback from our filer-base and the bench we have posted an updated version of the fillable forms. You are encouraged to use the latest version of the fillable draft order forms, but you may continue to use the earlier version of the forms if procedural considerations will require a period of time for you to implement the new forms.

The court has and will continue to prepare training materials and other resources to help you in this effort, but your questions and suggestions are appreciated. Please share your thoughts and questions by using our "E-Order Feedback" tool. You can find the feedback tool and much more information at http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/e-order/ . You are encouraged to work with the court's information technology and operational staff to test your documents and processing before the mandatory date. To become an "early adopter", please communicate your interest using the feedback tool.

Judge Squires will not be hearing Chapter 7 and 11 original motions on Mondays as of January 3, 2011.
Chicago Chapter 7 and 11 original motions may be set for Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:30 a.m. only.
If there is a set matter that was previously scheduled for a Monday in 2011, it will remain on the call unless otherwise notified by Chambers.

The court will be performing system maintenance. To accomplish this CM/ECF will be removed from service at 4:00 PM CT, Friday, September 24th. Service is expected to be restored by Saturday September 25th at approximately 12PM CT (possibly earlier).

During this time we will engage the replication center to provide READ-ONLY access to CM/ECF data. A message will be sent and an announcement posted when service is restored.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

The new form can be found at:
http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/Forms/Chapter_13/Fee_Order_cases_filed_after_101705.pdf
Please begin use of the new form immediately.

Effective, October 15, 2010, use of this model plan is mandatory. It may also be used at any time prior to October 15, 2010.
Amended Chapter 13 Model Plan.

We have created a new event, Notice of Mortgage Payment Change. This event is now available for your use. Please be sure that a proper caption is included on your document and that the title is consistent with the title of the event. If you have any questions, please contact our CM/ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765.

The U. S. Bankruptcy Courts encourage the bankruptcy community to utilize Electronic Bankruptcy Noticing (EBN). EBN is a free service that allows court notices to be transmitted electronically. delivering them faster and more conveniently. Some of the advantages to electronic noticing are:

• Court notices are sent the same day they are produced at the court.
• You can access your court notices 24/7.
• Court notices that would be mailed to multiple locations can be route to a centralized electronic address.
• Storing court notices to your computer means you never lose a paper copy.
• Court notices can easily be forwarded around the office or to your attorney.

For more information and to register for this service, please go to http://ebn.uscourts.gov. You may also contact EBN Customer Service at 1-877-837-3424 or ebn@baesystems.com.

2nd edition of the The Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee's Newsletter is now available for your viewing pleasure.
August 2010 Newsletter.

The court in cooperation with U. S. Trustee staff has created a new web page for the benefit of attorneys managing Chapter 7 cases. We have published the "341 trustee preferences" for Chapter 7 Trustees on our Internet web site.

Beginning September 2, 2010, Judge Barbosa will be sitting in a new Courtroom at the Kane County Courthouse, Courtroom 250. All Kane County hearings for dates on September 2, 2010 or after should be noticed for the new Courtroom Number 250. All hearing times and the building address remain the same.

Several tickets are still available for the Annual Bankruptcy Liaison Committee's White Sox Event. Tickets are $60 per person. Patio opens at 5:40 p.m., first pitch is 7:10 pm.

To Purchase Tickets Please Contact
Adam P. Silverman or Robin Maatman
(asilverman@ag-ltd.com) or (rm@ag-ltd.com)
Adelman & Gettleman, Ltd.
53 W. Jackson Blvd, Suite 1050
Chicago, IL 60604
(312)435-1050

View PDF version

The United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Illinois, in conjunction with the Chicago Bar Association Bankruptcy Committee will be holding a "Next Generation CM/ECF Discussion" from 12:30 - 2:00 on Tuesday, July 27 in room 1132 of the Dirksen Courthouse. The Federal Judiciary is developing requirements for a new electronic filing system. The purpose of this meeting is to gather user requirements from consumer attorneys who currently use the CM/ECF filing system. We are certain there are issues and suggestions that you have regarding the functionality of the current system, and would appreciate your attendance to provide input. We encourage you to personally attend, or send someone from your office who can help us gather these requirements. Please click HERE to view suggestions that have already been offered. For those who cannot attend, a follow up survey will be conducted to gather additional input. Thank you in advance for your valued input and suggestions.

We have created a new Motion event in accordance with Bankruptcy Rule 4008, Motion to Extend Time to File Reaffirmation Agreement. This event is now available for your use. Please remember to title your motion and proposed order to match the title of the event. If you have any questions, please contact our CM/ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765.

The court has revised its Local Bankruptcy Forms and Orders, Form Order #16, "Order and Notice Setting Time to File Claims". Please commence the use of this form effective with the receipt of this message.

Sign up today for two pro bono opportunities with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Volunteer Attorney Panel. The court has established a Volunteer Attorney Panel made up of attorneys willing to represent pro se parties (mostly debtors but sometimes creditors) in bankruptcy cases. Representation is limited to adversary proceedings and contested matters – matters requiring litigation skills that pro se parties lack. No panel member is asked to file a bankruptcy case, complete schedules and similar forms, or attend a meeting of creditors.

The program is also entirely voluntary. The judges identify matters suitable for representation, and the clerk of the court recruits volunteers from the panel to take on those matters, but panel members are never compelled to accept representation. They may decline requests because of a conflict of interest or for any other reason.

If you are interested in joining the panel, complete the short questionnaire available at http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/VAP/Volunteer_Attorney_Panel.pdf and send the completed form to Kenneth Gardner, Clerk of the Court, 219 S. Dearborn Street, 7th Floor, Chicago, IL 60604.

Bankruptcy Assistance Desk. The Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago (LAF) maintains a Bankruptcy Assistance Desk funded through a generous grant from the Chicago Bar Foundation. The Assistance Desk provides limited bankruptcy advice to pro se debtors consistent with new Rule 6.5 of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct. The Desk is located on the 6th floor of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse and is open from 9:30 a.m. until about 1 p.m.

If you have experience in consumer bankruptcy cases (at least one year preferred), you can help staff the Bankruptcy Assistance Desk. Volunteers receive a short training session with an experienced LAF attorney and also spend at least an hour shadowing a current Assistance Desk attorney. Shifts can be scheduled according to the volunteer’s preferences and availability, and volunteers can request a full or half shift.

If you are interested in staffing the Assistance Desk, please contact Serena Larkin at slarkin@lafchicago.org or David Yen at dyen@lafchicago.org

View PDF version.

The court will be installing a new version of CM/ECF the weekend of June 11 - 12, Version 3.3.3. To accomplish this CM/ECF will be removed from service at 4:00 PM CDT, Friday, June 11th. Service is expected to be restored by Saturday noon ( possibly earlier).

During this time we will engage the replication center to provide READ-ONLY access to CM/ECF data. A message will be sent and an announcement posted when service is restored.

If you wish to try the new version of CM/ECF you may do so by visiting https://ecf-test.ilnb.uscourts.gov/ and logging-in. The same login name and password you use in our Live area will work in the Test area. Please be certain you are in the Test area. Our test area will look like the image in the following link: http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/cmecf_332/cmecf-test-login.jpg. 

If it does not looks like this sample DO NOT perform any data entry.

We at the United States Bankruptcy Court Northern District of Illinois are extremely pleased with the willingness of court users to take their time to complete our surveys. This is our 4th year administering our Customer Satisfaction Survey. The most recent results are posted on our website  under Court Information-Clerks Office- Customer Satisfaction Survey results.

 http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/Clerks_Office/Survey_Results2009.pdf

It is that time of the year again. We want to provide the best possible service to our customers and we need to measure the progress towards those goals through the opinions of the people who use the court.

Please help us serve you and others better by completing our Customer Satisfaction Survey. The survey will be available on our internet site for the month of June. We will have staff members administering the survey in the outlying counties on June 4th, 11th and 17th, in the courthouse in Chicago the week of June 7 and Rockford on June 18, 2010.

To take the survey please click here.

The court has been developing a mechanism, using a fillable order form, to expedite the processing of motions and orders. This work has involved personnel from the court's chambers and Clerk's staff. Further, the U. S. Trustee and Marilyn Marshall's office participated in a pilot program for more than a year.

The greatest impact on you, the electronic filer, is the requirement to use the standardized form for any proposed order. You will be required to submit a draft order using the court mandated fillable form which will result in an order that the court will be able to edit and approve when needed. A copy of the fillable order may be downloaded, from our Electronic Order Processing web page. Use of these forms is fundamental for the fully paperless, electronic processing of orders. The benefit to all participants is the efficient, accurate, and prompt posting of orders to the docket.

Use of these forms will be required for all motions and proposed orders presented on and after November 1, 2010.

The court has and will continue to prepare training materials and other resources to help you in this effort, but your questions and suggestions are appreciated. Please share your thoughts and questions by using our "E-Order Feedback" tool. You can find the feedback tool and much more information at http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/e-order/ . You are encouraged to work with the court's information technology and operational staff to test your documents and processing before the mandatory date. To become an "early adopter", please communicate your interest using the feedback tool

The Court's CM/ECF site and web site will be unavailable Thursday, May 20, 2010 from 6 AM to approximately 8 AM CDT due to network maintenance. Please make note of this outage and plan accordingly.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

A motion to redact personal information prohibited under Fed. R. Bankr. P. 9037(A) should be filed without a notice of motion and without serving other parties. The motion must be accompanied by a redacted version of the filed document and a proposed order requiring the clerk to substitute the redacted document for the unredacted document. The judge should rule on the motion as soon as possible without holding a hearing unless there appears to be a reason to deny the motion, in which case the judge should set the matter for a hearing with the movant as soon as possible. Any registrant or limited registrant may file a motion to redact.

Click here to view the amended ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES FOR THE CASE MANAGEMENT/ELECTRONIC CASE FILING SYSTEM

A new statistics page has been added to ILNB's Internet web site. The page provides a variety of historical and contemporary views. Also included, the ability to compare different periods of filing. We welcome your feedback.

Interactive/Comparative Stats

Thank you.

Effective immediately, the Northern District of Illinois website is available to be translated into various languages via our main website page. To utilize this service, please click on the translation link on our home web-page. You will be taken to a disclaimer page, navigate to the intended language and then see that the rest of our site has been translated. We are offering this service as a result of feedback from our customers. You will notice that the web-pages are translated, but that the forms are not. This is intentional, as all filings with the court are still required to be submitted in English.

Translation Disclaimer

The Bankruptcy Court has adopted procedures under which attorneys who are members of the Volunteer Panel may apply for reimbursement of expenses incurred in connection with Volunteer Panel matters. The procedures can be found on the Court's web site at the "Volunteer Attorney Panel" link.

Announcement and Volunteer Questionnaire
Reimbursement of Volunteer Expenses

General Order 08-01 regarding providing pay advices to trustees has been amended to eliminate the requirement that debtors send pay advices to the U.S. Trustee. Pay advices must still be provided to the case trustee and to any creditor who timely requests copies of pay advices.

To clarify, though it is no longer necessary for you to send pay advices to the U. S. Trustee, it is required that you send copies of all pay advices to the Chapter 7 Panel Trustee and or Chapter 13 Trustee assigned to your debtor's case.

Thank you for your attention.

View General Order No. 10-01

All services are restored

The Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee is looking for practicing attorneys who are interested in serving on the Committee. There will be several positions with two-year terms open to attorneys for the Committee's next term, which commences in June, 2010. The Committee is composed of approximately ten attorneys in private practice and includes representatives from the Office of the US Trustee and the Chapter 13 Trustees. The Chief Judge of the Bankruptcy Court and several of her colleagues are regular guests of the Committee at the monthly meetings.

The Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee was formed to promote communications about court procedures, etiquette, filings and other issues; to assist the Court and attorneys in creating a more efficient environment; and to represent a diverse group of bankruptcy attorneys from the Chicago area. Additionally, the Committee members develop, participate in and support educational programs concerning issues affecting the bench, attorneys, financial institutions and consumers, including providing support for the local CARE Program. The Committee also organizes and sponsors social events to allow greater interaction between the Court and the attorneys who appear before it.

If you are interested, please send a letter describing your professional background and expressing interest in serving on the Committee. You may also send any other information that may be helpful to the Committee in the selection process. If you have any questions about the Committee's functions, please contact one of the current members of the Committee. You can find the contact information for the Committee members under the link for the Committee on the Bankruptcy Court's website.

Please submit your information to either Scott Alsterda or Nathan Curtis no later than Friday, May 14, 2010 per the contact information below:

R. Scott Alsterda Ungaretti & Harris LLP
3500 Three First National Plaza
Chicago, IL 60602
Tel: 312.977.9203 Fax: 312.977.4405
Email: rsalsterda@uhlaw.com

Nathan E. Curtis Geraci Law, LLC
55 East Monroe, Suite 3400
Chicago, IL 60603
Fax: 877.247.1960
Email: nat@geracilaw.com

The Seventh Circuit Electronic Discovery Committee, Chaired by Chief U.S. District Judge James F. Holderman and U.S. Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan invite you to attend this free Webinar on April 28, 2010 at Noon C.D.T.
Click this link for more information.

Due to electrical work occurring in our area all court automated systems, including our website, will be removed from service commencing Friday, April 16, 2010, at approximately 4:00 PM. Services will be restored the afternoon of Sunday, April 18, 2010. We will post a message on our website when service is restored as well as send a list service message to all who subscribe to the court's E-mail Message Service.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Effective immediately, please be advised that all of Judge Squires' DuPage Chapter 13 Matters will be set for 10:30 a.m. This includes all Chapter 13 original motions, adversaries, set matters and confirmations. This change will be effective through June 25, 2010. Any matters currently set for 11:00 a.m. or 11:30 a.m. will be heard at 10:30 a.m. All new Chapter 13 matters for the period through and including June 25, 2010 should be set for 10:30 a.m.

The success of the new McVCIS system has surpassed expectations, and therefore, the VCIS system will be shutdown on April 1, 2010.
The new number is 1-866-222-8029.
The Illinois Northern Bankruptcy Court is #15.
Go to McVCIS information page.

Voice Case Information System (VCIS), is a free system that provides basic information via a toll-free phone call. It has been in use for many years, and is an important component of access to court records.
Recently a new system has been developed that will centralize the VCIS services. Multi-Court VCIS, "McVCIS", is centralized system that combines many bankruptcy courts into a single access system.
McVCIS has been enhanced to provide a better experience. It provides a multi-lingual (English and Spanish) voice, increased availability monitoring, and increased hardware capabilities.
The new phone number is 1-866-222-8029. The Illinois Northern Bankruptcy Court is #15.
The legacy system will be retired on 6/1/2010.
Go to McVCIS information page.

Effective Monday March 8, 2010 the Clerk’s office (in both divisions) will expand the hours of operation. The Clerk’s office will be open from 8:30 until 4:30; and the Customer Service Information line (312) 435-5694 will be answered from 8:30 until 5:00.

CM/ECF will be removed from service for maintenance at 8:00 AM CST, February 21, 2010 for approximately one hour.
We appreciate your patience and understanding.

The Court's main Internet site and CM/ECF, electronic filing, will be removed from service at 8:00 AM, February 13, 2010 for approximately one hour.

The Committee has decided to post this Newsletter so that members of the Bar are aware of the types of topics that are discussed at the Committee meetings, and can offer their input regarding the same. December 2009 Newsletter.

Due to inclement weather, the Rockford Bankruptcy Clerk’s Office will be Closing today at 2:00 p.m. If you have an emergency that requires immediate attention, please contact Ray Matlock at 815-780-0354.

In order to permit more time with family and friends, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois will be closed on Thursday, December 24, and Friday, December 25, 2009 in observance of the Christmas holiday. Any matter previously set for December 24, 2009 is continued to December 28, 2009 or another date set by the judge presiding in the matter.
View Administrative Order 09-11

To assist with a current PACER program assessment, users of PACER may participate in a short survey, takes only about 2 minutes to complete, regarding their satisfaction with current services and any suggestions for potential enhancements. This survey will remain available to users for approximately 30 days.
Please click on the following link to take this survey, and we thank you in advance for helping to improve public access to federal court documents and information: Click here to begin the survey.
If you have any questions about this assessment, please contact the PACER Service Center at pacer@psc.uscourts.gov.

Among the time-computation amendments to the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure that will take effect on December 1, 2009, are changes to 12 rules that will result in a reduction by one day (from 15 to 14 days) of the time to take action.
The affected rules are Bankruptcy Rules 1007, 1019,1020, 2015, 2015.1, 2016, 3015, 4001, 4002, 6004, 6007, and 8009.
Please take note of these changes and particularly of the new 14-day deadline for filing schedules, statements, and other documents under Rule 1007(c); for filing a chapter 13 plan under Rule 3015(b); and for filing appellate briefs under Rule 8009(a).

The Bankruptcy Court Liaison committee cordially invites you to attend the 2009 holiday party.
Please see the attached invitation for further information.
Party Invitation.

Several new and amended forms are effective December 1, 2009. Many of the forms have been revised to conform to the time deadlines contained in Bankruptcy Rule 1007. We are in the process of editing the forms to be PDF fillable and will have that process completed shortly. Detailed information regarding these form changes can be found at the following link - http://www.uscourts.gov/bankform/index.html.

One of the new Official Forms that will be required is the Reaffirmation Cover Sheet, B27. This form must be completed in its entirety and filed with the reaffirmation agreement attached. It may be filed by any party to the reaffirmation agreement.

In order to permit more time with family and friends, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois will be closed on Friday, November 27, 2009 in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Any matter previously set for November 27, 2009 is continued to November 30, 2009 or another date set by the judge presiding in the matter.
View Administrative Order 09-10

Judge Squires to resume holding court in Courtroom 680 (Chicago call only) on Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 9:00 AM.
The repairs necessitated by the recent water leak in the Dirksen Building have been significantly completed.

Effective the week of October 12, 2009, Judge Wedoff will begin hearing all matters in his Chapter 7 cases and Chapter 11 cases on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at his regularly scheduled times.

Effective immediately, all new motions to be heard after October 12, 2009 in Judge Wedoff’s Chapter 7 and 11 cases should be noticed for Tuesdays or Wednesdays at 9:30 a.m. in accordance with Judge Wedoff’s regular schedule.

Chapter 7 and 11 Cases for the Week October 5, 2009:

Motions and set matters in Judge Wedoff’s Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 cases to be heard during the week of October 5, 2009 will be heard on Thursday, October 8, 2009, in Judge Wedoff’s courtroom by Judge Wedoff.

Chapter 7 and 11 Cases for the Week of October 12 and later:

All new motions, status hearings, or other set matters in Judge Wedoff’s Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 cases now scheduled for a Tuesday or Wednesday after October 12, 2009 will be heard on the Tuesday or Wednesday on which they are scheduled.

Any motion in Judge Wedoff’s Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 cases that has already been noticed for a Thursday after October 12, 2009 will still be heard on the Thursday for which it was noticed (unless the movant chooses to re-notice the motion for a Tuesday or Wednesday after October 12, 2009).

Chapter 13 Call:

Judge Doyle will continue to hear Judge Wedoff’s Chapter 13 call on Thursdays at the regularly scheduled times until further notice.

Thank you for your cooperation during the last month in rescheduling Judge Wedoff’s Chapter 7 and 11 matters for Thursdays.

View PDF version

On Friday, October 2nd 2009 CM/ECF at 4:00 PM CDT CM/ECF will be upgraded to a new hardware platform. This upgrade, among many things, will address the performance issues many have experienced with the recent increase in case filings.

From Friday 4:00 PM CDT to approximately 12:00 PM CDT on Saturday, October 3rd the system will be unavailable. During this time we will engage the replication center to provide READ-ONLY access to CM/ECF data. A message will be sent and an announcement posted when service is restored.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Due to a variety of issues, the CM/ECF outage planned for this weekend has been postponed. The system will be available throughout the weekend without any interruptions. The planned outage will be re-scheduled for a later date.

The "Required Statement to Accompany Motions for Relief from Stay" form has been revised, effective August 18, 2009, which now requires post-petition payment history in Chapter 13 cases. Please begin using this new form immediately.

The court will be installing a new version of CM/ECF the weekend of August 21 - 22, Version 3.3.2. To accomplish this CM/ECF will be removed from service at 4:00 P.M., Friday, August 21st.  Service is expected to be restored by Saturday afternoon or evening the 22nd.
 
If you wish to try the new version of CM/ECF you may do so by visiting "https://ecf-test.ilnb.uscourts.gov/" and logging-in. The same login name and password you use in our Live area will work in the Test area. Please be certain you are in the Test area. Our test area will look like the image in the following link: CM/ECF Test Area image.  If it does not looks like this sample DO NOT perform any data entry.

If you or your organization have developed any automated processes used with CM/ECF we strongly urge you to test them in our Test area before you use them with this version of CM/ECF.  Additional information may be found by selecting this link.

We understand that many users of the court's electronic filing systems have experienced performance issues over the past months.

The court, working with elements of national system support, has developed a plan to move to a new processing platform. The new equipment will be a considerable step up in capability. The new equipment is on site and is undergoing setup, configuration and considerable testing.

Our move to the new equipment is predicated upon the court using CM/ECF v3.3.2. The final CM/ECF version of this software was released only within the past two weeks. It is being tested as of this writing and plans call for its installation, tentatively, the weekend of August 21, 2009 (more to follow under separate cover). We estimate the new system platform will come on-line during the first half of September.

We hope this information may assuage the frustration many are feeling as a result of poor system performance.

In an effort to cure performance issues encountered this week, CM/ECF will be stopped allowing certain configuration changes to be made. It is not certain that these changes will rectify all issues. We will continue to monitor and make other changes we feel may be of help.

 

UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY JUDGE JOHN D. SCHWARTZ
will be honored at a reception by
The Bankruptcy and Reorganization Committee
of the Chicago Bar Association

Thursday, June 18, 2009
5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Chicago Bar Association
321 South Plymouth Court

Hors d’oeuvres and Cash Bar

Questions — Please contact
Celeste Washington at 312.583.2332

view invitation

We at the United States Bankruptcy Court Northern District of Illinois are extremely pleased with the willingness of court users to take their time to complete our surveys. An Access and Fairness survey was administered to the court users during the Fall of 2007 and Spring of 2008. The most recent results are posted on our website at:

http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/Announcements/Survey_Results.pdf

It is that time of the year again. We want to provide the best possible service to our customers and we need to measure the progress towards those goals through the opinions of the people who use the court.

Please help us serve you and others better by completing our Access and Fairness Survey. The survey will be available on our internet site for the month of June. We will have staff members administering the survey in the outlying counties on June 19^th and in the courthouse in Chicago and Rockford the week of June 22, 2009.

To take the survey please <click here>.

Thank you for your time.

Kenneth S. Gardner
Clerk of the Bankruptcy Court
Northern District of Illinois

The "Required Statement to Accompany Motions for Relief from Stay" has been amended to require additional information regarding the nature of post-petition default payments. The form changes are required effective June 1, 2009.

View amended form.

Revised form effective June 1, 2009.

View revised form

Judge Doyle will be participating in the court’s Calendar Adjustment Program from June 1, 2009 through August 31, 2009. All documents in her cases should continue to be filed with Judge Doyle’s name on them and noticed for hearing according to the schedule listed below. All Ch. 7 and Ch. 11 new motions should continue to be noticed for 10:00 a.m. before Judge Doyle in Courtroom 742 and will be heard as follows:

	June 2 through June 30 -	Judge Squires in Courtroom 680 (Tuesday and Thursday) No court call on Thursday, June 11
	July 2 through July 28 -	Judge Hollis in Courtroom 644 (Tuesday and Thursday)
	July 29 through August 26 -	Judge Wedoff in Courtroom 744 (Tuesday and Wednesday) Beginning July 29th and continuing through August 26, all motions will be heard on TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY

Judge Wedoff in Courtroom 744 (Tuesday and Wednesday) Beginning July 29th and continuing through August 26, all motions will be heard on TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY

ALL WORK WILL BE PROCESSED BY JUDGE DOYLE’S STAFF AND FORWARDED TO THE APPROPRIATE JUDGE.

Thursday, July 30,2009, against the New York Yankees Patio Opens at 5:40pm; First Pitch at 7:10pm Tickets $80

To Purchase Tickets Please Contact
Adam P. Silverman or Robin Maatman
(asilverman@ag-ltd.com) or (rm@ag-ltd.com)
Adelman & Gettleman, Ltd.
53 W. Jackson Blvd, Suite 1050
Chicago, IL 60604
(312)435-1050

The Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee is looking for practicing attorneys who are interested in serving on the Committee. There will be several positions open to attorneys for the Committee's next term, which commences in June 2009. The Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee was formed to promote communications about court procedures, etiquette, filings and other issues; to assist the Court and attorneys in creating a more efficient environment; and to represent a diverse group of bankruptcy attorneys from the Chicago area. Additionally, the Committee members develop, participate in and support educational programs concerning issues affecting the bench, attorneys, financial institutions and consumers, including providing support for the local CARE Program. The Committee also creates social opportunities to allow greater interaction between the Court and those who appear before it.

If you are interested, please send a letter expressing your interest in serving on the Committee and also send any other information that may be helpful to the Committee. Please submit your information to either Scott Alsterda or Terri Long no later than May 19, 2009 per the contact information below:

R. Scott Alsterda Ungaretti & Harris, LLP
3500 Three First National Plaza
Chicago, IL 60602
Tel: 3121977-9203
Fax: 3 12/977-4405
Email: rsalsterda@uhlaw.com

Terri M. Long
Law Offices of Terri M. Long
1820 I Morris Avenue
Homewood, IL 60430
Tel: 708-922-3301
Fax: 708-922-3302
Email: tmlong@tmlong.com

Due to the need to process a critical task it is necessary for the court to take CM/ECF out of service this evening, April 14, 2008, for a period of approximately 4 hours. The outage will take place between 8:00 PM and 12:00 Midnight.

We apologize for this inconvenience and wish to emphasize that diligence requires we perform this task at our earliest opportunity.

Thank you for your understanding.

Bankruptcy Rule 9037 requires that personal identification information defined as individuals' Social Security and taxpayer identification numbers, names of minor children, financial account numbers, and dates of birth, be redacted from documents filed with the court. For details visit:

http://www.uscourts.gov/rules/privacy2.html

Please verify that your documents conform to this Rule.

Judge Squires will be out on Monday, March 2, 2009 and Tuesday, March 3, 2009. Chief Judge Doyle will be covering his court calls in Courtroom 742 and will be filling in as Emergency Judge on those days. Judge Squires will return on Wednesday, March 4, 2009 and will resume his Emergency Judge duties for the month of March.

The Court's CM/ECF site and web site will be unavailable this evening Friday, February 27, 2009 between the hours of 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. due to network maintenance by Sprint. Please make note of this outage and plan accordingly.
We apologize for any inconvenience.

The Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee was formed to promote communications about Court procedures, etiquette, filings and other issues, and to assist the Court and attorneys in creating a more efficient environment.
Over the past several months, the Committee has considered a variety of issues including pro bono assistance, electronic filing requirements, judicial surveys, the Help Desk, local rules, education programs and social opportunities to allow greater interaction between the Court and those who appear before it.
The Committee would like to take this opportunity to encourage members of the Bar to contact a member of the Bar on the Committee regarding any concerns, issues, questions and suggestions that they might have which could be considered by the Committee at future meetings. All of the communications to members of the Committee from members of the Bar are handled anonymously.
The Committee plans to issue periodic newsletters with updates on the various issues presented to the Committee.
The contact information for the Bar members of the Committee can be found at the link for the Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee on the Court's website.

View PDF version

4:45 PM CST

The telecommunication difficulties have been corrected.

3:00 PM CST

The court is experiencing telecommunication difficulties at this time. Technical support staff are addressing this with the highest priority. We apologize for the inconvenience and will advise when the trouble has been corrected.

The court will be installing a new version of CM/ECF the weekend of February 13 - 16, Version 3.3.1. To accomplish this CM/ECF will be removed from service at 4:00 P.M. Friday, February 13th. Service is expected to be restored by Sunday evening the 15th.

There are many parts to this upgrade. Under best circumstances service may be restored as early as Sunday evening. Under less than ideal circumstances we may not have things back in service until Monday afternoon/evening. We will send a message to you when the system is up, but you may also test for system availability by logging in late Sunday afternoon.

If you wish to try the new version of CM/ECF you may do so by visiting "https://ecf-test.ilnb.uscourts.gov/" and logging-in. The same login name and password you use in our Live area will work in the Test area. Please be certain you are in the Test area. Our test area will look like the image in the following link: CM/ECF Test Area image.  If it does not DO NOT perform any data entry.

If you or your organization have developed any automated processes used with CM/ECF we strongly urge you to test them in our Test area before you use them with this new version of CM/ECF.

The CMECF upgrade will include many new features. Please select from the links below to learn more.

Notes for PACER Users Update will include two distinct updates, v3.2 and v3.3.  CM/ECF Bankruptcy Release 3.2;  CM/ECF Bankruptcy Release 3.3

Electronic Learning Modules

Thank you for attention and understanding.

Effective, the weekend of February 13, 2009, the Court will be upgrading the electronic case filing application, CM/ECF. Many new features will be included. Please select from the links below to learn more.

Notes for PACER Users Update will include two distinct updates, v3.2 and v3.3.  CM/ECF Bankruptcy Release 3.2;  CM/ECF Bankruptcy Release 3.3

Electronic Learning Modules

View invitation notice

View notice regarding handling of Judge Schmetterer's cases. revised 03/06/09

All matters on calendar for February 2, 2009 for Judge Barbosa, at the Federal Building, 211 South Court Street, Room 115, in Rockford, IL, are cancelled. All matters are rescheduled for February 9, 2009 at the times originally scheduled. If you need further assistance, please contact the courtroom deputy at 815-987-4485.
View Judge Barbosa's Motion Schedule

On Friday, January 16, 2009, Judge Squires will be holding court in Room 2011 instead of Room 4016 on this date only.
Renoticing/Amending any current motions set for hearing on that date is "not" necessary as there will be signs posted on the courtroom door in Dupage.

Administrative Procedures for the Case Management/Electronic Case Filing System, amended through December 16, 2008 have been posted.

Court will not be held at the Western Division Office (Rockford), today, Friday December 19, 2008 due to inclement weather. Matters schedule to be heard today are rescheduled to Tuesday, December 23, 2008, at the time originally scheduled on Friday.

The Clerk's Office is also closed today, Friday, December 19, 2008.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

 

The following revised or new Official forms are available on our website at: Bankruptcy Forms

B 1 Exhibit D - Individual Debtor's Statement of Compliance with Credit Counseling Requirement
B 8 Chapter 7 Individual Debtor's Statement of Intention
B 10 Proof of Claim
B 22A Statement of Current Monthly Income and Means Test Calculation (Chapter 7)
This version of the form is effective December 19, 2008 to implement the temporary exclusion from means testing created by the National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Act of 2008. Part 1C is added to the form to allow qualifying debtors to
claim the temporary exclusion under § 707(b)(2)(D)(ii).
B 23 Debtor's Certification of Completion of Postpetition Instructional Course Concerning Financial Management
B 25A Plan of Reorganization in Small Business Case under Chapter 11
B 25B Disclosure Statement in Small Business Case under Chapter 11
B 25C Small Business Monthly Operating Report
B 26 Periodic Report Regarding Value, Operations and Profitability of Entities in Which the Debtor's Estate Holds a Substantial or Controlling Interest
B 200 Required Lists, Schedules, Statements and Fees
B 201 Notice to Individual Consumer Debtor

Local form, Debtor's Declaration Regarding Domestic Support Obligations, has also been revised.
This form is required in order for the debtor to obtain a Chapter 13 Discharge on a BAPCPA case. This certifies that the debtor has complied with § 1328(a) of the Bankruptcy Code. This certification must be filed AFTER the Chapter 13 trustee files the Notice of Completion of Plan Payments. In a joint case, each debtor must file a § 1328(a) certification.

Effective December 1, 2008, the District Court adopted revised local rules for the Bankruptcy Court.
View revised Local Rules

In order to permit more time with family and friends, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois will be closed on Thursday, December 25, 2008 and Friday, December 26, 2008 in observance of Christmas Day and Thursday, January 1, 2009 and Friday, January 2, 2009 in observance of New Year's Day. Any matter previously set for December 26, 2008 is continued to December 29, 2008 and any matter previously set for January 2, 2009 is continued to January 5, 2009 or another date set by the judge presiding in the matter.
View Administrative Order 08-05

This is a minor change, made to section B, General provisions, under subsection 2(b).  The change requires the standing trustee to "File and" serve the notice described in this section.
The revised Model Plan must be used for all plans filed beginning on January 1, 2009.
View the revised Chapter 13 Model Plan
 

In order to permit more time with family and friends, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois will be closed on Friday, November 28, 2008 in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Any matter previously set for November 28, 2008 is continued to December 1, 2008 or another date set by the judge presiding in the matter.

View Administrative Order 08-03

The Bankruptcy Judges of the Northern District of Illinois are considering the possibility of adopting a flat fee arrangement for creditors’ counsel in Chapter 13 cases that would allow the approval of attorneys’ fees in specified amounts or lower without an itemization of the attorney’s time.   This arrangement could be similar to the one adopted for debtor’s counsel under Local Rule 5082-2 and General Order 07-02.  

    All attorneys and interested parties are invited to attend a meeting to discuss this matter:

        When:    Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 4:00 p.m.

        Where:    Office of the Chapter 13 Trustee
                       Marilyn Marshall
                       224 S. Michigan Avenue
                       Suite 800
                       Chicago, IL 60604

View announcement as a PDF

View Updated Information.

The court has recently learned of a very serious, negative, performance issue associated with CM/ECF, version 3.2.  Prudence dictates that installation of CM/ECF version 3.2 be postponed until this problem has been resolved.

The weekend planned outage of CM/ECF is cancelled.  You will be able to use the systems for reference, the filing of new cases, and new documents.

We will let you know of developments as they occur.

Thank you for your attention

The court must perform a series of complex software and operating systems upgrades over the next 2 weekends.
Electronic case filing will not be available during these upgrades.

The details:
10/03/08 - 10/04/08 Friday evening though Saturday evening. Outage will commence at approximately 04:30 PM, Friday. During this outage CM/ECF case information will be available for reference only. You will not be able to file new cases, documents or claims during the outage;

10/10/08 - 10/12/08 Friday evening though Sunday evening. Outage will commence at approximately 04:30 PM, Friday. During this outage CM/ECF case information, again, will be available for reference. You will not be able to file new cases, documents or claims during the outage.

The times discussed are best estimates. Outages could be longer and possibly shorter. We will post status changes as they occur.
We will also send reminder message in advance of each upgrade.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Wireless Access to the Internet
on the 7th, 6th and 2nd floors of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse is available.
Please do not use electronic equipment in the courtrooms. Limit your Internet use to the public areas or witness rooms on the 6th and 7th floors.
To access this service use your computer network configuration software to locate the network ID "ILN". This system is completely open, and is NOT supported by ILNB. We recommend you practice safe computing through the use of firewalls and virus protection.

Mobile Access to Court Information
Via your web-enabled mobile device you may now access a limited version of the Court's Internet website. Use the address "www.ilnb.uscourts.gov" on your mobile device.
Access includes Judge Calendars, Contact Information and Announcements.

RSS Feeds Version 2.0 is Now Available
Judges Opinions: "http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/opinions.rss"
Court Announcements: "http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/announcements.rss".

If you are not familiar with RSS Feeds, please review the following:

An RSS feed is a method of aggregating many "news feeds", so one may be apprized of "Recent Changes/What's New/Latest News" for a particular website. The following links to a Wikipedia article that provides additional information: "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_feed". The principal benefit to the end user is that information is passively communicated without the need to visit the website and actively review for new items.

Other courts, including the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals (http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/ca7_rss.htm) and Virginia Eastern Bankruptcy (http://www.vaeb.uscourts.gov/rss/rsspage.html), also provide RSS Feeds.

The RSS feed compliments the existing email list service. Support of the email notifications service will continue to be provided.

RSS Feeds can be subscribed to within the newest internet browsers, such as Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3. Many RSS Readers are available, many without fee.

The court must perform a series of complex software and operating systems upgrades over the next 3 weekends.
Electronic case filing will not be available during these upgrades.

The details:
09/28/08 Sunday morning, Outage will commence at 8:00 AM and should conclude by 12:00 noon, reference data not available;

10/03/08 - 10/04/08 Friday evening though Saturday evening. Outage will commence at approximately 04:30 PM, Friday.
               During this outage CM/ECF case information will be available for reference only. You will not be able to file new cases, documents or claims during the outage;

10/10/08 - 10/12/08 Friday evening though Sunday evening. Outage will commence at approximately 04:30 PM, Friday. 
               During this outage CM/ECF case information, again, will be available for reference. You will not be able to file new cases, documents or claims during the outage.

The times discussed are best estimates. Outages could be longer and possibly shorter. We will post status changes as they occur.
We will also send reminder message in advance of each upgrade.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Effective September 18, 2008
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that effective the close of business Thursday, September 18,2008, all pending bankruptcy cases and adversary proceedings assigned to Judge John D. Schwartz will be randomly reassigned to all eligible Cook County judges, except that the following six adversary proceedings related to the In re Anicom bankruptcy case (No. 01-00485) will be directly assigned to Judge Jack B. Schmetterer:

Anicom v. Kalatel	02-02516
Anicom v. Sentrol	02-02759
Anicom v. Honeywell International, Inc.	03-00022
Anicom v. Honeywell International, Inc.	03-00023
Anicom v. Honeywell International, Inc.	03-00026
Anicom v. Honeywell International, Inc.	03-00027

View General Order 08-03  |  View Case Reassignments by Case Number  |  View Case Reassignments by Judge

Effective September 18, 2008, all motions for payment of unclaimed funds will be heard by Judge Carol A. Doyle on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:00 a.m. (See Procedural Requirements for the Payment of Previously Unclaimed Funds)

Please note that September 18, 2008 will be the last court call before Judge John D. Schwartz on his pending cases. Shortly after that date all pending cases currently assigned to him will be reassigned to other Judges of this Court. Notices will be sent to all parties regarding reassignments. Judge Schwartz will continue to mediate cases. Matters for mediation may be set up by contacting his Judicial Assistant, Cindy Grossman, at 312-435-5652 or through email at cindy_grossman@ilnb.uscourts.gov.

Please be advised that on Friday, September 5, 2008 Judge Squires will hear his cases in courtroom 4012 instead of courtroom 4016 on this date only.
There will be signs posted. Renoticing or amending current motions set for this date is "not" necessary.

Effective August 26, 2008
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that all attorneys must comply with the Administrative Procedures for the Case Management/Electronic Case Filing System, approved February 17, 2004 and amended from time to time, that require attorneys to file all documents in electronic format.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that failure to comply with the Administrative Procedures will result in the issuance of a notice of hearing of rule to show cause before the Chief Judge to the attorney responsible for filing documents in paper form. Failure to appear at the rule to show cause hearing may result in counsel being held in contempt of court and the imposition of other sanctions.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that, in accordance with the Administrative Procedures, individuals without legal representation may file documents in paper form.
View General Order 08-02

The 2008-2009 Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee Members have been posted!

Pursuant to section 2071(b) of Title 28 of the United States Code regarding appropriate public notice and opportunity for comment, public notice is hereby given that the Court has approved for publication a proposed amendment to the following local rule: Local Rules of the Bankruptcy Court

1001-1 through 5005-1 (Bookmarked PDF)

5005-2 through 9029-3 (Bookmarked PDF)

The PACER Service Center (PSC) website and U.S. Party/Case Index have failed over to replicated sites.
All functionality has been restored.
If you have any questions please call the PACER Service Center's toll free number at 800-676-6856.

The PACER-Net connection to the PACER Service Center (PSC)is currently down. All web traffic to the PACER Service Center website and U.S. Party/Case Index is affected by this outage. Customers can not use the PACER links page, run searches on the U.S. Party/Case Index or register for AP filer accounts until the network connection is restored. There is no ETA on a fix at this time. We will send an update as more information is available.
CM/ECF is available, Cases and documents may still be filed.
If you have any questions please call the PACER Service Center's toll free number at 800-676-6856.

Due to a variety of issues the court will not be able to perform the intended upgrade to CM/ECF Version 3.2 this weekend, July 11, 2008. We do not have a specific date at this time, but will advise you at the first opportunity. The date will most likely be in August, but definitely not before August 8, 2008. We will send an advisory when a new date has been selected. Thank you for your understanding.

Electronic Learning Modules

Notes for PACER Users

The Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago (LAF) is seeking a staff attorney to work part time (60%) at the bankruptcy help desk, which is located in the United States Bankruptcy Court, 219 S. Dearborn, Chicago...
View complete announcement

Effective, tentatively the weekend of July 11, 2008, the Court will be upgrading the electronic case filing application. Many new features will be included. Please select from the links below to learn more.

Electronic Learning Modules

Notes for PACER Users

Effective June 27, 2008, Judge Squires will be sitting in a new Courtroom at the Dupage County Courthouse, Courtroom 4016. All Hearings should be noticed for the new Courtroom Number. All Hearing times remain the same. The Dupage County 341 Meetings have also changed to another location and will be held in Room 2017.

The Lake County bankruptcy call scheduled for August 8, 2008, has been reset to August 1, 2008. There will be no Lake County call on August 8.

Beginning September 12, 2008, the location of the Lake County bankruptcy court call will change again. Lake County chapter 7 and chapter 13 bankruptcy matters will be no longer be heard at the Lakehurst Branch Court. The call will instead be heard in Courtroom B at the new Park City Branch Court. The address of the new location is: The hearing schedule will not change. The hearing schedule at the Park City location will be the same schedule followed at Lakehurst.

The United States Bankruptcy Court is offering attorneys two options for completion of the ECF training: (option one ) on-line training and (option two) on-site classroom training. On-site classroom training is offered to attorneys and their support staff. If you are an attorney and would prefer to take the training on-line you may select option one from the CM/ECF Training - Registration Information page. Once you have registered you will receive an e-mail that will provide you with the required lessons that must be completed prior to receiving your training login and password.

To access the registration process select CM/ECF Information>ECF Training Registration or click on link below:

https://tdi.ilnb.uscourts.gov/training/

The Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee is looking for practicing attorneys who are interested in serving on the Committee. There will be several positions open to non-judiciary attorneys for the Committee’s next term, which commences in June 2008. The Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee was formed to promote communication about court procedures, etiquette, filings and other issues; to assist the Court and attorneys in creating a more efficient environment; and to represent a diverse group of bankruptcy attorneys from the Chicago area. Additionally, the Committee members develop, participate in and support educational programs concerning issues affecting the bench, attorneys, financial institutions and consumers, including providing support for the local CARE Program and state law school participation in the ABI’s national moot court competition. The Committee also creates social opportunities to allow greater interaction between the Court and those who appear before it.

If you are interested, please send a letter expressing your interest in serving on the Committee and also send any other information that may be helpful to the Committee. Please submit your information to either Scott Alsterda or Terri Long no later than May 16, 2008, per the contact information below:

R. Scott Alsterda
Ungaretti & Harris, LLP
3500 Three First National Plaza
Chicago, IL 60602
Tel: 312/977-9203
Fax 312/977-4405
Email: rsalsterda@uhlaw.com

Terri M. Long
Law Offices of Terri M. Long
18201 Morris Avenue
Homewood, IL 60430
Tel: 708-922-3301
Fax 708-922-3302
Email: tmlong@tmlong.com

An important computer room upgrade will be performed this Saturday approximately 7:30 AM to 3:00 PM. During this outage our CM/ECF "Live" server will be removed from service, but our "Replica" server will be available as a reference resource. One may view case information, but no docket entries may be made. The duration of the outage may be shorter."

Apologies for the inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding.

The Bankruptcy Judges of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois have asked the Federal Judicial Center (FJC) to survey attorneys who have practiced in the district to assess the performance of each of the Bankruptcy Judges.
View Announcement/Schedule

A revised version of form, "Required Statement to Accompany All Motions for Relief from Stay" has been published. Effective immediately, please use the new form when filing "Motions for relief from Stay".
View Form

For all who participated in our survey in September 2007, Thank You!

You gave us feedback and we listened. In an effort to measure the court’s success, during the week of April 21 and April 28 we will be conducting another survey of our customer at the Dirksen Courthouse, the outlying counties and Rockford. Again we have a team of staff members that will hand out the survey and help facilitate this process. We are interested to see if we have made improvement in the areas of access, fairness and level of service. The survey will only take 5 minutes to complete. The opinions of our customers count and we appreciate your participation.

The Office of the United States Trustee will be moving from its Monroe Street location to the Dirksen Federal Court House over the weekend of Friday, April 4th. On that Friday, the Chicago UST office will have no access to telephones, fax machines, or email. If you have an emergency and need to contact the UST's office, please leave a detailed message with the Milwaukee UST office (414) 297-4499. The UST will get back to you in as timely manner as possible. The UST is expecting that all services will be restored by Monday, April 7, 2008 at the new location. All scheduled 341 meetings will be held at the new space beginning on Wednesday, April 9th. The new address will be:


The main telephone number (312) 886-5785 and fax number (312) 886-5794 will remain the same as will all individual employees’ numbers.
View PDF version of the announcement

The Court’s Standing Order Regarding Filing of Payment Advices effective October 17, 2005 has been replaced effective June 23, 2008 by General Order No. 08-01 Regarding Pay Advices. For all Chapter 7 cases filed on or after June 23, 2008, pay advices must be provided to the United States Trustee, in addition to the case trustee and any creditor who timely requests copies. The current Standing Order Regarding Filing of Payment Advices applies to all cases filed on or before June 22, 2008.

View General Order 08-01
View for Instructions for submission of payment advices to U. S. Trustee

To improve the accuracy of the Bankruptcy Case Opening process and in response to our customers' concerns, the system will be modified to require that the county field be completed for each case. Currently, the system defaults the county field to Cook, and while the majority of cases are filed in Cook, this default has sometimes resulted in assignment errors that require correction and delay the release of the 341 notice. Failure to complete the county field will result in a error message that must be corrected in order to complete the filing of the case. This change will be effective Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at approximately 8:00 am. Thank you for your cooperation.

On Sunday, February 17, 2008, electrical power to our Court will be turned off. Unfortunately, the data processing center which hosts our primary CM/ECF equipment and website is in the part of the Court that will be without power. The outage is expected to occur from approximately 7:00 AM CST until 5:00 PM, Sunday, the 17th.

During the power outage we will direct users to our "replica" site. The replica will only be available for viewing information. You will not be able to file any documents. If you have ever accessed our systems during previous outages you may be familiar with this arrangement.

https://ecf.ilnb.uscourts.gov

The outage may be of shorter duration, but the time mentioned is the best estimate provided by building management. We will send another announcement when service is restored.

Many apologies for this inconvenience.

The court's web site has been updated. Not just a facelift, but a completely new site from the ground up. Though the look and feel are not too dramatically different, our goal was to make it easier to find the items you are searching, keep the number of clicks for navigation to a minimum, and to make it more intuitive from a user's perspective. An effort was made to keep you at the main page as much as possible to avoid "backtracking". We have also added a powerful search engine tool. You will be able to narrow your search criteria to avoid the "too many matches" syndrome.

The new site will be activated the morning of Thursday, January 24, 2008. We hope you will find the new site an improvement over the old, but please give us your suggestions using the "Contact Us" option.

Thanks and happy surfing!

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008 contains a provision that increased the quarterly fees on disbursements paid by chapter 11 debtors in U.S. trustee regions. The new fees went into effect on January 1, 2008, and are first due from chapter 11 debtors to the United States Trustees for deposit into the Treasury by the end of April 2008.
View Form B200 and Fee Changes.

Due to unexpected equipment difficulties associated to the Sunday power outage full CM/ECF service will not be restored until Monday, January 21th, late morning or early afternoon.

On Sunday, January 20, 2008, electrical power to a significant portion of our building will be turned off. Unfortunately, the data processing center which hosts our primary CM/ECF equipment is in the part of the building that will be without power. The outage is expected to occur from approximately 7:00 AM until 5:00 PM.

During the power outage we will direct users to our "replica" site. The replica will only be available for viewing information. You will not be able to file any documents. If you have ever accessed our systems during previous outages you may be familiar with this arrangement.

The outage may be of shorter duration, but the time mentioned is the best estimate provided by building management. We will send another announcement when service is restored.

Many apologies for this inconvenience.

Beginning March 14, 2008, the location of the Lake County bankruptcy court call will change. Lake County chapter 7 and chapter 13 bankruptcy matters will be no longer be heard in the Lake County Courthouse at 18 North County Street, Waukegan. The call will instead be heard at the Lakehurst Branch Court – Courtroom B. The Lakehurst Branch Court is located at 430 Lakehurst Road, Waukegan.

Because of the new location, the hearing times for Lake County chapter 7 cases will also change. Beginning March 14, 2008, the following schedule be observed in the afternoon:

The hearing times for Lake County chapter 13 cases will remain the same:

In order to permit more time with family and friends, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois will be closed on Monday, December 24, 2007 and Tuesday, December 25, 2007 in observance of Christmas Day and Monday, December 31, 2007 and Tuesday, January 1, 2008 in observance of New Year’s Day...
View Administrative Order

View the Survey Results

In order to permit more time with family and friends, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois will be closed on Thursday, November 22 and Friday, November 23, 2007 in observance of Thanksgiving Day.

View Administrative Order

Essential upgrades necessitate we remove CM/ECF from service Saturday November 10. This outage will commence at 7:00 AM CST on November 10th and last until approximately 4:00 PM, the same day.

A second piece of system maintenance will require that CM/ECF be removed from service Friday, November 16th at 4:30 PM CST lasting until approximately 4:30 PM, Saturday, November 17th. Service may be restored earlier on the 17th, but it is possible for the outage to last longer. We will provide updates to the term of outage as the status changes.

On October 30, 2007 approximately 7:00 am through 7:30am CMECF/PACER will experience a service outage. It is expected this outage should only last a few minutes.
Voice Case Information System (VCIS), and access to the court's public website will NOT be affected.

During the week of September 10th we will be conducting a survey of our customers here at the bankruptcy court. We have assembled a team of staff members to hand out the surveys and help facilitate completion of it. We are trying to determine what we are doing well, and where we need to make improvements. We are interested in areas concerning access, fairness and our level of service. The survey should take no more than 5 minutes to complete. We would appreciate your feedback!

Thank you
Kenneth S. Gardner
Bankruptcy Clerk

This message is being sent as a reminder that all filing fees are due at the time of filing or by the end of the day. Failure to pay the fees timely will result in order to show cause entered against you as the attorney of record for failure to pay the required fees, and you will be required to appear before the Chief Judge for a hearing.

View announcement

Due to the closing of DuPage County Courthouse all matters scheduled for 8/24/07 will be heard next Friday 8/31/07 at the same time.

Commencing November 1, 2007 through January 31, 2008, Western Division motions will
be heard as follows: every Monday with the exception of November 12, December 24, January 14
and January 21. In addition, motions will be heard on Friday, January 18th. Please set your
motions accordingly.

Morning session:
Chapter 13
trustee motions 9:30 a.m.
attorney/creditor motions 10:00 a.m.
confirmations 10:30 a.m.
Chapter 12
all motions 11:00 a.m.

Afternoon session:
Chapter 7 and Chapter 11
all motions 1:00 p.m.

Trials and hearings will be set by the court at a date mutually agreed upon by the parties.

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois requires that the Notice to Individual Consumer Debts under 11 U.S.C. § 342(b) of the Bankruptcy Code, be filed with the petition or within 15 days. 11 U.S.C. §§ 342(b); 521(a)(1)(B)(iii); 707(a)(3).

The Notice to Individual Consumer Debts should be included with the petition and supporting documents and tagged with bookmarks, clearly labeled, and generated by PDF software to permit navigation.

View a copy of the Notice to Individual Consumer Debts under 11 U.S.C. § 342(b) of the Bankruptcy Code (fillable PDF)

View a copy of the Required Lists, Schedules, Statements, and Fees

Assignment of Cases.

View Administrative Order

Reassignment of Chapter 13 Cases.

View Administrative Order

Effective immediately please use the new form, (Rev. 6/25/07).

View PDF version of the announcement

PART-TIME STAFF ATTORNEY
BANKRUPTCY COURT – SELF-HELP ASSISTANCE DESK
Background: The Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago (LAF), a not-for-profit corporation, is the principal provider of free civil legal services to low-income and elderly persons in Chicago and suburban Cook County. The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and the Chicago Bar Foundation are expanding the pro se help desk.
The help desk provides members of the public with basic information about their legal rights and assists individuals without legal representation who wish to file, or have filed, bankruptcy petitions, or who have claims against people or companies who have filed bankruptcy.
Position: LAF is seeking a staff attorney to work part time (60%) at the bankruptcy help desk, which is located in the United States Bankruptcy Court, 219 S. Dearborn. The attorney will field inquiries from pro se bankruptcy litigants, most of whom will be individuals who are trying to file a bankruptcy petition pro se or who have already filed a bankruptcy pro se and want advice about questions that have come up in their case. He or she will explain bankruptcy filing requirements, court procedures, the options available, such as the difference between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 cases, and will assist individuals in preparing petitions and other court-related documents. The attorney will not file any documents or represent individuals who seek aid from the help desk. Where appropriate, the attorney will give the individuals information about other programs that may be able to provide legal representation. This staff attorney will work under the supervision of LAF’s bankruptcy supervisor, and will have access to, and the support of, LAF’s wide ranging legal expertise. The attorney will also work closely with United States Bankruptcy Court personnel and with other organizations that help pro se clients. The hours of work are open for discussion: a possible schedule is 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. daily.
Qualifications: Illinois bar and a minimum of two years of litigation experience required. Experience in bankruptcy court preferred. Candidates must be able to communicate effectively with people from all segments of society.
Salary: D.O.E. Excellent fringe benefits.
Applications: Send resume, cover letter, transcript and names of two references by May 28, 2007 to:
David Yen, Supervisory Attorney
Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago
111 W. Jackson Blvd., 3rd Floor
Chicago, IL 60604
(fax) (312) 612-1472
E-mail: dyen@lafchicago.org
LAF IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

CM/ECF will be removed from service commencing Friday, 5/18/07, at 4:30PM (CDT). This outage is necessary to perform an essential CM/ECF system upgrade to version 3.1.5. Service will be restored by Saturday afternoon, 5/19/07.
We have established a read-only system that will be available during this outage. The location is https://ilnb-rep.ecf.uscourts.gov . You will receive an error/warning about the site certificate. Please accept this warning ONLY FOR THIS DURATION.
Thank your for your cooperation and understanding.

Please view the announcement below and complete the questionnaire if interested.
Volunteer panel announcement
Volunteer panel questionnaire

Requirements for Section 362(c)(3)(B) and (c)(4)(B) Motions

View Standing Order

View PDF version of the announcement

The Bankruptcy Judges of the Northern District of Illinois have amended the procedures for awards of attorney fees in Chapter 13 cases. For cases filed on or after May 1, 2007, a fee of up to $3500 will be allowed without an itemization of services, provided that the debtor and counsel enter into an amended version of the court's Model Retention Agreement, which provides for representation by counsel throughout the pendency of the case. If a previous
Chapter 13 case of the debtor or the debtor's spouse was dismissed within a year of the commencement of the case in which fees are sought, the court retains the discretion to award less than $3500. The option of a flat fee for services rendered only through confirmation has been eliminated. If the new Model Retention Agreement is not entered into, or if counsel seeks a fee greater than $3500, an itemization will be required.
Copies of the General Order implementing this procedure, as well as the revised Model Retention Agreement and a revised form for fee applications are available as follows:

General Order No. 07-02
Model Retention Agreement
Chapter 13 Fee Application

Effective immediately please cease the use of the older versions of this form and begin using the new form dated 02/20/07.

View Form

Effective immediately please cease the use of the older versions of this form and begin using the new form dated 02/20/07.

View Form

Effective Monday, April 16,2007, Official Form B-21, Statement of Social Security Number, must be submitted with every petition for an individual debtor. The form is required per Bankruptcy Rule 1007(f). Currently, the Statement of Social Security Number has not been a required document for electronically filed petitions. This change is being made to insure that the Court records are correct and complete. The Statement must be entered as a separate filing, using the event, Statement of Social Security Number. Using this event will insure that the docket entry is not viewable by the public. Thank you for your cooperation.

Section I , C New subsection 8, Revocation of Password, under DESIGNATION OF CASES , PASSWORDS, REGISTRATION AND APPEARANCE OF ATTORNEYS, that allows the Clerk of Court to invalidate the password of an attorney who is disbarred or suspended. The Clerk will notify the attorney as required by this procedure.

Section II. Clarified language under FILING AND SERVICE OF DOCUMENTS , subsection B-4, Certificate of Service, that further specifies the required information to be included in a Certificate of Service.

Section II. Eliminated the requirement under FILING AND SERVICE OF DOCUMENTS, subsection C-2, Original Attorney Signatures, that attorneys include their attorney registration number on each filing.

If you have any questions about the changes, please contact our ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765.

View Administrative Procedures for CM/ECF

(ROCKFORD ONLY)
Telephonic appearances are no longer arranged directly with Chambers. A
private company, Tele-Court, Inc., has been licensed by the Administrative Office of the
U.S. Courts to provide telephonic appearance services to attorneys for a fee. Tele-
Court does not set or calendar hearings for the Court, but rather only facilitates the
telephonic appearance of an attorney at hearings that have already been scheduled.
Permission will be denied on all scheduled telephonic appearances for matters
that do not comply with these guidelines. The fact that an attorney schedules a
telephonic appearance on Tele-Court’s system does not mean that a telephonic
appearance is permitted by the Court. Attorneys and parties who schedule telephonic
appearances are solely responsible for compliance with the Court’s rules and
procedures for telephonic appearances.
The Court allows the use of telephonic appearances on all matters except as follows:
1. No telephonic appearances are permitted for pre-trial conferences and
matters set for oral argument;
2. All sworn testimony must be presented in open court.
3. Only attorneys of record may appear telephonically.
Contacting Tele-Court to Arrange a Telephonic Appearance: Telephonic appearances
are scheduled online at www.tele-court.com. Persons without internet access can
schedule a telephonic appearance by calling (800) 924-5680. The fee payable to Tele-
Court for each attorney appearing telephonically is $10 plus 25 cents per minute. A
refundable deposit of $25 per call per appearing attorney is required at the time the
telephonic appearance is scheduled, which is payable by credit card or other form of
advance payment. Each appearing attorney is responsible for the charges applicable to
his/her individual connection.
Deadline: Telephonic appearances must be scheduled on Tele-Court’s system by 8:00
a.m. (CST) on the business day prior to the hearing date.
Dialing in to the Conference: Callers make a telephonic appearance by dialing a toll-free
number provided by Tele-Court five minutes before the scheduled hearing time and
providing the unique PIN number obtained at the time of scheduling.
Speaker-phone, Cellular Phones and Other Distractions: The use of speaker-phones,
cellular phones or phones in public places is strongly discouraged.
Conference Procedure: Although individual case conferences may occur as directed by
the Court, all persons making telephonic appearances typically will be connected to a
single conference call that is joined to on-going court proceedings via a speaker-phone
in the courtroom. All participants should mute their line until their matter is called to
avoid disturbing the courtroom with extraneous noise. Telephone participants must
identify themselves each time they begin speaking.

View PDF version of the announcement.

CM/ECF will be down from 8:00 pm to approximately 8:30 pm CST for emergency maintenance.

Pursuant to General Order 07-01, for all Chapter 13 cases filed on or after October 17, 2005, the debtor must file a Debtor's Declaration Regarding Domestic Support Obligations in order to receive a discharge. In joint cases, each debtor must file and complete a separate form. The form(s) must be filed at the time that the Chapter 13 trustee indicates that all plan payments have been completed. Chapter 13 trustees will now file a Notice of Completion of Plan Payments to alert the debtor that the Declaration needs to be filed. This new procedure is effective immediately. If you have any questions, please contact our ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765.

The Illinois Northern Bankruptcy Court's website, www.ilnb.uscourts.gov, will be down on Sunday February 4, 2007 at approximately 5pm for system maintenance. The outage is expected to last until 8pm (3 hours). The CM/ECF system (https://ecf.ilnb.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl) will still be available during the outage period.

View Administrative Order 06-02

View Fee Schedule

CM/ECF will be removed from service commencing Friday, 12/15/06, at 4:30PM (CST) for scheduled maintenance. Service will be restored by Saturday afternoon, 12/16/2006.
Thank your for your cooperation and understanding.

Effective immediately please notice all motions for Joliet at the address listed below:
Will County Court Annex Building
57 North Ottawa Street, Room 201
Joliet, Illinois 60432
In addition, please select this location when E-filing motions.
If you have any questions, please contact our ECF Help Desk at 312-408-7765

View Administrative Order 06-01

CM/ECF will be removed from service commencing Friday, 10/13/06, at 4:30PM (CDT). This outage is necessary to perform an essential CM/ECF system upgrade, version 3.1, to support the BAPCPA legislation. Service will be restored by Saturday afternoon, 10/14/2006.
We have established a read-only system that will be available during this outage. The location is https://ilnb-rep.ecf.uscourts.gov . You will receive an error/warning about the site certificate. Please accept this warning ONLY FOR THIS DURATION.
Please check our Internet web site, "www.ilnb.uscourts.gov" for updates.
Information regarding the BAPCPA legislation is available on our web site under "Bankruptcy Reform Act Information".
Thank your for your cooperation and understanding.

View PDF

Official Forms approved by the Executive Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States on September 19, 2005 and Committee Notes to be used effective October 1, 2006. The court is working to make the revised forms fillable, but in the meantime please review the revised and new forms at:
"http://www.uscourts.gov/bankform/index.html"

When filing any event that requires a selection from the Location List, do not select any locations that have an X at the beginning of the location. These locations have been retired from use and should never be used. When a retired location is selected, it causes the docket text to record the incorrect hearing information

New Plan to be used immediately and required for all plans filed on or after September 15, 2006

Please be advised the payment of filing fees over the internet will be unavailable during the following periods:
Start : Sunday, August 13th, 2006 2:00 AM EDT
End : Sunday, August 13th, 2006 8:00 AM EDT
You will still be able to view and docket information using CM/ECF during these periods, but you will not be able to make credit card payments.
Thank you for your patience and understanding as this required maintenance is performed.

CM/ECF will be removed from service commencing Friday, 08/18/06, at 4:00PM CDT. This outage is necessary to perform an essential system upgrade. Service will be restored by Sunday evening 08/20/06.
Please check our Internet web site, "www.ilnb.uscourts.gov" for updates.
Thank your for your cooperation and understanding.

The court will be installing a new version of CM/ECF the weekend of June 16 - 18. To accomplish this CM/ECF will be removed from service at 4:00 P.M., Friday June 16th. Service is expected to be restored by Saturday evening the 17th.
There are many parts to this upgrade. Under best circumstances service may be restored as early as Saturday afternoon. Under less than ideal circumstances we may not have things back in service until Sunday. We will send a message to you when the system is up, but you may also test for system availability by logging in any time after Saturday noon.
If you wish to try the new version of CM/ECF you may do so by visiting "https://ecf-test.ilnb.uscourts.gov/" and logging-in. The same login name and password you use in our Live area will work in the Test area. Please be certain you are in the Test area. Click here to view a screenshot. If the screen you see does not look like the screenshot DO NOT perform any data entry If you or your organization have developed any automated processes used with CM/ECF we strongly urge you to test them in our Test area before you use them with this new version of CM/ECF.
Thank you for attention and understanding.

New Plan to be used immediately and required for all plans filed on or after July 1, 2006

-Form 3B, Application for Waiver of Chapter 7 Filing Fee (Microsoft Word)
-Form 200, Required Lists, Schedules, Statements and Fees (WordPerfect)
-Form 201, Notice to Individual Consumer Debtor (WordPerfect)
-Form 1, Voluntary Petition (Instructions only revised) (WordPerfect)

We will be taking CM/ECF out of service briefly Thursday morning for essential maintenance.
We hope this is not too inconvenient and appreciate your understanding.

FILING FEES
Chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $299
Chapter 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1039
Chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1039
Chapter 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $239
Chapter 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $274
Chapter 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1039
Adversary Proceeding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$250
Notice of Appeal (or cross Appeal) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $255
Motions to Modify Stay, Motions to Compel Abandonment of
Property, Motions to withdraw the reference under 28USC157(d) . . . .$150
Application for Pro Hac Vice (for cases filed on or after 2/1/01) . . . . . . $50
Application for Pro Hac Vice (for cases prior to 2/1/01) . . . . . . . . . . . .$100
Registration of Judgment from another District . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $39
Creditor Schedule Amendments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $26
Split case - chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$220
Split case - chapter 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$150
Split case - chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1000
CONVERSION FEES for cases filed prior to April 9, 2006
Notice and/or Motion to convert a case to chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15
Converting a chapter 7 to a chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $780
Converting a chapter 13 to a chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $850
CONVERSION FEES for cases filed on or after to April 9, 2006
Notice and/or Motion to convert a case to chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15
Converting a chapter 7 to a chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $755
Converting a chapter 13 to a chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $765
MISCELLANEOUS FEES
Retrieval of Record from Federal Records Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$45
Search of the Records (per name or item searched) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$26
Certification of any Document or paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$9
Exemplification of any Document or paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$18
Copies (per page,paper) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$0.50
Copies (electronic print fee per page) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$0.10
Returned check for NSF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$45
REOPENING FEES
Chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$220
Chapter 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$150
Chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1000
For more details on bankruptcy fees, please refer to 28 U.S.C. 1930

A voluntary petition by an individual shall be accepted for filing if accompanied by the debtor’s signed application, (Official Form 3) stating that the debtor is unable to pay the filing fee except in installments, and that until the filing fee is paid in full, the debtor will not make any additional payment or transfer any additional property to an attorney or any other person for services in connection with the case.
The application shall state the debtor shall pay the filing fee according to the following terms:

1) the full filing fee shall be paid in four equal installment payments;
Chapter 7 - four equal installment payments of $68.50
Chapter 13 - four equal installment payments of $47.25

2) the first installment is to be paid within 30 days, and at least half of the filing fee must be paid within 60 days of the filing of the petition;

3) the final installment payment shall be payable not later than 120 days after filing the petition;

The application may be completed with a “/s/” in place of the debtor’s signature and filed as a PDF.

 

The Declaration Regarding Electronic Filing must be filed and signed by the debtor.

Failure to:

• File an Application to Pay Filing Fee in Installments, in accordance with General Order No. 05-05,
• File a Declaration Regarding Electronic Filing, or
• Pay the initial installment amount will result in the case being referred to the assigned judge for resolution.

Subsequent installment payments must be mailed to the Clerk’s Office or paid in person at the Intake Counter.

Due to technical problems with the Court's CM/ECF site you will be redirect to the replica version of the site. You will only be able to run queries and reports.
Normal service is expected to be restored within the next couple hours.

The court will be closed on Friday, November 25, 2005. CM/ECF will be available for electronic filing.

Due to the volume of prose filings being received over the Intake Counter we are temporarily suspending all outside access to ECF. We will bring the system up as soon as possible, but estimate it will not be available for Electronic Filing until 10:00 PM this evening.

The Training CM/ECF system will be removed from service on Monday, October 17, 2005 at 12:00 AM. This, to provide an opportunity to upgrade the system to make it compliant with the “ Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 ". The system may be down most of Monday, but we will post a message on our Website when it is available.

FILING FEES
Chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $274
Chapter 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1039
Chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1039
Chapter 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $239
Chapter 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $189
Chapter 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1039
Adversary Proceeding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2501
Notice of Appeal (or cross Appeal) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $255
Motions to Modify Stay, Motions to Compel Abandonment of
Property, Motions to withdraw the reference under 28USC157(d) . . . . . . $150
Application for Pro Hac Vice (for cases filed on or after 2/1/01) . . . $50
Application for Pro Hac Vice (for cases prior to 2/1/01) . . . . . . . .$100
Registration of Judgment from another District . . . . . . . . . . . . $39
Creditor Schedule Amendments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $26
Split case - chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $220
Split case - chapter 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $150
Split case - chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1000
CONVERSION FEES
Motion to convert a case to chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15
Converting a chapter 7 to a chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $780
Converting a chapter 13 to a chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $850
MISCELLANEOUS FEES
Retrieval of Record from Federal Records Center . . . . . . . . . . $45
Search of the Records (per name or item searched) . . . . . . . . . $26
Certification of any Document or paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $9
Exemplification of any Document or paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $18
Copies (per page,paper) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $0.50
Copies (electronic print fee per page) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $0.10
Returned check for NSF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $45
REOPENING FEES
The amount of the filing fee for the appropriate chapter of the particular case on
the date of reopening.
For more details on bankruptcy fees, please refer to 28 U.S.C. 1930
1The Adversary Proceeding fee of $250 became effective September 20, 2005.

The new plan must be used with all Chapter 13 cases filed on or after October 17, 2005.

The Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee was formed to promote communication about Court procedures, etiquette, filings and other issues, and to assist the Court and attorneys in creating a more efficient environment. Additionally, the Committee develops and sponsors education programs concerning issues affecting the bench, attorneys, financial institutions and consumers. The Committee also creates social opportunities to allow greater interaction between the Court and those who appear before it.
The Committee provides an opportunity to relay issues, concerns or ideas to the Committee – anonymously – through any of the Committee Members. The information will then be presented to the Bankruptcy Judges for their review and consideration.

Scheduled CM/ECF outage 09/02/05 6:00pm(CST) - 09/03/05 2:00PM (CST)
The court will be performing system maintenance. CM/ECF will be removed from service at 6:00 PM on Friday, 09/02/05. Service is estimated to be restored Saturday 09/03/05 at approximately 2:00pm (CST).

effective September 20, 2005. View notice

effective September 15, 2005. View procedures

Today 8/18/2005 at 12:00 p.m.

Today 8/16/2005 at 12:30 p.m.

Effective Immediately.
Application for permission to pay filing fee in installments is now accepted for electronically
filed cases (ECF).
The requirements to file a case electronically and pay the fee in installments are:
File an application, Official Bankruptcy Form 3, stating that the debtor is unable to pay
the filing fee except in installments. The application shall state the proposed terms of the
installments payments and the applicant has neither paid any money nor transferred any
property to an attorney for services in connection with the case. The application may be
completed with a “/s/” in place of the debtor’s signature and filed as a PDF.
The Declaration Regarding Electronic Filing must be filed and signed by the debtor.
Failure to:
• File an Application to Pay Filing Fee in Installments, in accordance with Local
Rule 1006-1,
• File a Declaration Regarding Electronic Filing, or
• Pay the initial installment amount
will result in the case being referred to the assigned judge for resolution.
Subsequent installment payments must be mailed to the Clerk’s Office or paid in person at the
Intake Counter.

Effective July 1, 2005
The Declaration Regarding Electronic Filing, required when filing a petition electronically
(ECF) or on diskette, has been revised. For installment cases, the signature of the debtor(s) on the “Declaration” will take the place of the signature of the debtor(s) on the Application to Pay Filing Fees in Installment. The installment Application can be completed using the /s/ for the signature of the debtor(s) and filed in PDF format.
There are two versions of the Declaration Regarding Electronic Filing form. One form to use
when filing a petition electronically (ECF) and another when filing a petition on diskette. The
“Declaration” to use when filing a petition electronically (ECF) only requires the signature of the debtor(s). The “Declaration” to use when filing a petition on a diskette requires the signature of both the debtor and attorney. Please be sure to use the appropriate form.

If you fail to pay your fees by the end of the day you will be prevented from further e-filing until all fees are paid. You may pay your fees at any time by running the “Internet Fees Due” report which is found under the CM/ECF “Utilities Menu”.
We are aware of some problems users have experienced when attempting to pay the required fees on-line. This may be due to the following problems:

1. “Cookies” and other Internet files: Your computer and Internet browser software attempt to optimize your use of the Internet by saving information about the sites you visit in these specialized files. On occasion the computer will become confused as to which is correct and most current, the data coming from the web site or the local cookie and Internet files. When this happens the best thing to do is to clear (delete) the cookie and Internet files. Click here for more information on clearing cache and temporary files.

2. “Pop-up Blockers”: Many firms and attorneys use a type of software product called a “Pop-up Blocker”. As the name implies the software will block pop-up advertisements from appearing on your computer. Unfortunately, the prompts to make your payments on the courts system is presented to you using the pop-up method. When the pop-up blocker is turned on, the Payment Information screen will not be displayed. In order to make payments in CM/ECF, you will need to allow pop-up windows to display. Activating and deactivating the pop-up blocker can vary from one software product to another. Use of your software is best explained to you by your technical support. Click here for more information on the Pop-up Blocker feature.

3. Pay.gov: This application was developed by the U.S. Treasury and is the service used by all Bankruptcy Courts to process transactions over the internet. Pay.gov has experienced processing difficulties from time to time, though most have been of less than an hour’s duration. These failures prevent you from paying the filing fee at the time you are filing. If this occurs we ask that you continue filing and make your payment later in the day.

If you are experiencing any technical problems please call the ECF Help Desk at 312- 408-7765.

Effective Immediately

Step-by-step Procedures:

1) Follow normal process to open Lead case;
2) Run Judge Trustee Assignment for Lead case only;
3) File each additional case. Do not run Judge Trustee Assignment for each additional case;
4) Select Continue Filing.

The Bankruptcy Clerks Office personnel will be responsible for assigning the Judge of the Lead case to all related bankruptcy cases filed electronically. In order to complete the Judge Assignment process please contact Arnaldo Rivera, Manager of Public and Courtroom Services upon the completion of the related filings at 773 495-5842 or 312 435-6869.

Effective July 1, 2005, the court will no longer accept paper documents for filing. All documents submitted to the court must be submitted electronically through the court’s electronic
filing system (CM/ECF). To submit filings via the electronic system, you must complete a
training class and certification assignment prior to being issued a login and password. Please visit our website at www.ilnb.uscourts.gov to register for your training class.
Individuals without legal representation may file documents in paper form.

View Administrative Procedures ( amended )

Effective January 3, 2005 all documents commencing either a bankruptcy case (petition, lists, schedules, statements, plans, installment agreements, declarations) or adversary proceeding (complaint, cover sheet, summons), not filed via the internet must be submitted on a computer diskette, CDROM, or DVD. The accuracy and completeness of these documents shall be the total responsibility of the debtor and debtor’s attorney. View Filing Requirements.

Pro se filers are exempt from this requirement.

For your convenience the court has made most of these forms available on our Bankruptcy Forms Web Page , in a fillable PDF format. Instructions on how to create a PDF document and bookmarks may be obtained from our ECF User’s Manual. Search for PDF and then select Creating PDF and, or Creating Bookmarks in a PDF document.

In order to insure that the documents you file can be properly processed by the computer system, we ask that you observe the guidelines attached to this notice. Your cooperation is essential in helping us make improvements to our system and better serve you - the public.

Request for Waiver of the Diskette, CDROM, or DVD

If financial constraints and/or the inability to access the equipment necessary to produce a computer diskette would cause an undue hardship on the debtor, a motion must be presented to the Chief Judge.

Effective Immediately
Based on the Standing Order effective December 1, 2004, the following procedural guidelines clarify how this document should be filed.

The Notice of Motion, should reflect the Confirmation Hearing Date, if initial request.
Follow the guidelines in the General Order on Service. See link below.

http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/Announcements/stand_order_ch13_fee_app_notice.pdf

Chapter 13 Fee Application
Use the latest version, dated 07/12/04. Type the attorney's name and Bar ID under the Signature line. Do not include an additional Motion. The Chapter 13 Fee Application serves as the motion for both initial and post-confirmation requests.

If Itemization is submitted, use the approved form and include as an attachment.
If the Model Retention Agreement is submitted, use the approved form and include as an attachment.

Note: It is only necessary to attach the Model Retention Agreement if the Judge has requested that it be filed. Also, please do not file the Model Retention Agreement with the petition. If required, it should be filed with the Chapter 13 Fee Application, so the Judge has all pertinent documents to consider when awarding fees.

If an Affidavit is submitted, include as an attachment.

Attach a Proposed Order, using the approved form, and a minute order.

This procedure applies to all Chapter 13 Fee Applications: initial requests and requests for postconfirmation fees.

Copies of the approved forms are available on the Court’s web site.

http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/

For our ECF Filers:
Please use the event, Compensation with Notice of Motion and docket any additional documents as attachments, as described above.

This change is being made to standardize the filing and docketing process under CM/ECF.
Please click on this link to review the details of this change, as well as other revised documentation.

http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/roboinfo/external_manual.htm

If you have any questions please contact our Help Desk at 312 408-7765 or by e-mail at:
ecf train@ilnb.uscourts.gov.

from 3:00 PM Friday 12/10/04 until 4:00 PM Saturday 12/11/04.

A fee increase from 7 cents per page to 8 cents per page for public access to court electronic records (PACER) was approved by the Judicial Conference of the United States at its September 2004 session. The fee increase applies to all systems (CM/ECF, PACER, RACER, etc.) and became effective January 1, 2005. The 30 page cap on case-related documents and reports (excluding transcripts) will remain in effect. However, the maximum cost will be $2.40. The new fee schedule is available by clicking here.

If you have any questions, please contact the PACER Service Center at pacer@psc.uscourts.gov.

Effective Monday, November 15, 2004, we implemented a change in how an Objection to Confirmation should be filed. The document should be titled Objection to Confirmation of Plan. You should also accompany the Objection with a Notice of Filing. There is no need to schedule a hearing date as all Objections will be heard at the Confirmation Hearing.

The document should NOT be filed as a Motion or combined with any other Motion. This change is being made to standardize the filing and docketing process under CM/ECF.

If you attach a proposed order, it should be titled Order Confirming Plan or Order Denying Confirmation. Please do not submit any proposed orders titled Order Sustaining or Overruling Objection.

For our ECF filers, please click on the following link to review the details of this change as well as other revised documentation. roboinfo

If you have any questions please contact our Help Desk at 312 408-7765 or by email at ecf_train@ilnb.uscourts.gov.

Chapter 13 Fee Applications Notice and Hearing Required.
View Order

In observance of the Thanksgiving Holiday the Court will be closed Friday, November 26, 2004.
View Order

This form, Itemization of Services, has been revised and must be used beginning October 19, 2004. A copy of the revised form can be found on the Court's website under Local Bankruptcy Form Orders.
For our ECF filers, the process to docket this form has changed. Whenever the Itemization accompanies a Chapter 13 Fee Application, it should be docketed as an attachment instead of a separate pleading. The form is now listed as one as one of the options that appear in the attachment list.

Beginning 09/10/04 at 3:00 PM

revised

The Required Statement has been revised and must be used beginning August 2, 2004. A copy of the revised form can be found on the Court's website under Forms and Orders - Bankruptcy Forms.
For our ECF filers, the process to docket a Motion to Modify Stay will change. The Required Statement that accompanies the Motion should be docketed as an attachment instead of a separate pleading.
The Statement will be listed as one as one of the options that appear in the attachment list.

Mandatory as of August 16, 2004

Required Statement when modifying the automatic stay.
View Order

Chapter 7 fees
View Order

Sunday 2/15/2004 and Friday 2/20/2004.

To all parties, effective December 1, 2003 only the last four digits of a debtors social security
number will be displayed in CM/ECF.

Attorneys, petition filers and pro se debtors are required to file:

• New bankruptcy cases using the petition, Official Form 1 which will contain only
  the last four digits of individual debtors’ Social Security numbers
• Submit Form 21. STATEMENT OF SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER
• Documents using the current versions of the Official Bankruptcy Forms -
  including the Voluntary Petition, Involuntary Petition, Schedules, Statement of
  Financial Affairs, and Proof of Claim.

 

Form B21

STATEMENT OF SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER

• will not be kept in the general file but will be placed in a dated binder.
• should be received stamped only as it will not be entered onto the docket sheet.
• should not be included on the creditor matrix diskette, or submitted on any floppy
  diskette.

 

Form B21, the statement of Social Security number, is confidential and is not to be given out to the public via the counter, or, in person. The party must get leave of court to obtain the Form B21. It does not matter if the requestor is a creditor in the case!

 

Failure of attorneys or pro se filers to submit Form B21 STATEMENT OF SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER with their new case filing will cause a deficiency notice to be issued requiring the Social Security number to submitted by a date certain or the case would be dismissed.

 

Public service clerks cannot refuse to accept any petition that does not comply with the new privacy rules. When a filer files a bankruptcy case with the old forms which do not comply with the new privacy rules the public service clerk will accept the filing and create a deficiency form.

 

Deputy clerks cannot give out the debtor(s) social security number(s) out to any party who requests it via the telephone, in person, or, through a copy request.

 

If a party is requesting verification of the social security number by giving the deputy clerk the social security number then the deputy clerk will advise the party if the social security number they were given matches, or, does not match. The deputy clerks are not allowed to give the party the debtors social security number when the number the party gives does not match.

 

Any party wishing to obtain access to a debtors’ social security number will have to file a motion with the Bankruptcy Judge who is assigned the case.

 

Under the new privacy rules, the section 341 meeting notice sent to the debtor’s mailing list (creditors and other parties) is the only notice which must include the debtor’s full Social Security number.

 

Two copies of the sectional 341 notice will go out. One with the redacted social security number which goes into the general file and one with the complete social security number which goes out to all listed creditors

 

Section 341 meeting notice will include a box listing all other names used by the debtor in the last six years.

 

After the first meeting notice any other notice will have only the redacted SSN, if any at all.

 

The redacted social security number will be displayed as “xxx-xx-1234".

 

The BNC Certificate of Service will state “that the notice sent to creditors has the full Social

 

Security number, whereas the court’s copy has been redacted.”

Chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $209
Chapter 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $194
Chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $839
Chapter 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $239
Adversary Complaint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..$150
Notice of Appeal (or cross Appeal) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5
Docketing Appeal (or cross Appeal) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..$250
Motions to Modify Stay, Motions to Compel Abandonment of
Property, Motions to withdraw the reference under 28USC157(d) . . $150
Motion to convert a case to chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15
Retrieval of Record from Federal Records Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . $45
Creditor Schedule Amendments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $26
Registration of Judgment from another District . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $39
Search of the Records (per name or item searched) . . . . . . . . . . . $26
Certification of any Document or paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$9
Exemplification of any Document or paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $18
Fee for Splitting Case - Chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $155
Fee for Splitting Case - Chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $800
Fee for Splitting Case - Chapter 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $200
Fee for Splitting Case - Chapter 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $155
Copies (per page,paper) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$0.50
Copies (electronic print fee per page) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $0.10
Returned check for NSF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$45
For more details on bankruptcy fees, please refer to 28 U.S.C. 1930
revised October 2003

Effective June 1, 2003
View Procedures

The following changes will be effective with the implementation of the CM portion of CM/ECF, or mandated with the implementation of the new Local Rules effective June 1, 2003. The court will be implementing the CM portion of CM/ECF on June 16, 2003.

There will be some small differences in the appearance of the screens an Internet user will use to access the court’s case dockets and document images. You may view a tutorial of the new process by clicking on the following hypertext link:

/cmEcf/Pacer/index.html

Creditor Matrix on Diskette

Local Rule 1007-1

The debtor shall prepare and submit to the Court, at the time a voluntary petition under any chapter is filed, a mailing matrix on computer diskette which complies with the computerized noticing guidelines. Click here to review the current specifications. Upon motion for cause shown, the court may excuse compliance. Pro se debtors are exempt from this rule.

You may submit a sample, or test diskette to the court in advance of our CM live date to verify that you and or your software are able to properly create a Creditor Matrix Diskette.

Please direct your sample diskettes and any questions to Arnaldo Rivera, Customer Service Manager. His telephone number is 312 435-6869.

Assignment of Related Cases

Local Rule 1015-1

For purposes of assignment, a case shall be assigned to the judge of a previously assigned case under the following circumstances:

if the debtor’s spouse has filed a case and it is still pending; or

if a case was previously commenced by or against the same debtor and is still pending; or

the debtor was a debtor in a previous case under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code; or

the cases involve persons or entities that are affiliates as defined in §101(2) of the Bankruptcy Code.

Notice of Amendments to Voluntary Petitions, Lists or Schedules; Notice to Creditors Added After First Notice is Mailed

Local Rule 1009-1

The debtor shall serve amendments to voluntary petitions, lists or schedules under Fed. R. Bankr. P. 1009 (a) on all creditors, the trustee, and in a Chapter 11 case, on the United States Trustee and any official committee of unsecured creditors, and shall file a proof of such service with the clerk. In addition, if the debtor adds any creditors to the schedules after the first notice of the meeting of creditors under §341 or 1104(b) of the Bankruptcy Code has been mailed, the debtor shall serve each such creditor, by first-class or certified mail, with a copy of the original notice of the meeting of creditors, and shall file a proof of such service with the clerk.

341 Notices on Chapter 13 Petitions

The Clerk’s Office will schedule 341 Meetings and Confirmation Hearings upon the filing of the petition. Notice will be issued even if the Chapter 13 Plan is not filed.

Chapter 13 Plans and Amended Plans

The Clerk’s Office will send a copy of the plan or amended plan to all creditors and parties in interest.

Chapter 11 Claim Register

The Claim Register will only list proofs of claim that have been filed with the Clerk’s Office. A claim record will no longer be created based on the claim amounts listed in the schedules.

 

Conversion by One Debtor Under a Joint Petition

Local Rule 1019-1

When only one of two joint debtors in a joint petition files a notice of intent or motion to convert, upon payment of any required additional filing fees, the clerk shall divide the case into two separate cases and assign a case number to the new case. The debtor seeking to convert his or her case shall give notice to the other joint debtor as well as all other parties entitled to notice under the Bankruptcy Code and Bankruptcy Rules, and shall be responsible for the payment of all required fees. Each debtor shall file within 15 days of division of the case all necessary amendments to the schedules and statement of financial affairs.

New Case Number Format

You will not be required to change the way you display the case number on your pleadings. You will notice a difference in the way the new system will display case numbers on some screens. Case and party data for the Eastern and Western Divisions will be consolidated in CM/ECF. The following outlines what each part of the new, fully distinguished, case number represents.

1234567890123
0:YY-TY-#####

1 = Office Code, 1 for Chicago and 3 for Rockford
2 = colon
3 and 4 = the year the case was filed during
5 = hyphen
6 and 7 = Case Type,
8 = hyphen
9 - 13 = five digit case number

Bankruptcy = BK
Split Cases = BK
Adversary Proceeding = AP
Miscellaneous Proceeding = MP

... the Local Rules of the Bankruptcy Court be adopted effective June 1, 2003.
View Order

IT IS ORDERED THAT, effective Tuesday, February 11, 2003, all Chapter 13 cases pending on the calendar of Judge Eugene R. Wedoff, and all related pending Adversary Proceedings, will be reassigned to the calendar of Judge Jacqueline P. Cox.
View Order

IT IS ORDERED that all pending cases, and any related Adversary Proceedings on Calendar “A” are reassigned to Judge A. Benjamin Goldgar.
View Order

IT IS ORDERED that all pending Chapter 7 and 11 cases, and any related Adversary
Proceedings on Calendar “B” are reassigned to Judge Pamela S. Hollis.
View Order

IT IS ORDERED that all Chapter 13 cases and related Adversary Proceedings pending before Judge William Altenberger where the domicile, residence, principal place of business or principal assets of the person or entity is Cook County are reassigned to Calendar “A”.
View Order

IT IS ORDERED that all pending Cook County Chapter 13 cases, and any related Adversary Proceedings, on the calendar of Judge Carol A. Doyle are reassigned to Judge Bruce W. Black.
View Order

IT IS ORDERED that all pending Chapter 7 and 11 cases, and any related Adversary Proceedings, except the three cases listed below and any related Adversary Proceedings thereto, on the calendar of Judge Ronald Barliant are reassigned to Calendar B.
View Order

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois shall be closed on Friday, July 5, 2002.
View Order

Internet access to case document images will not be available for part, perhaps all of this coming weekend.  Access to case documents will cease at approximately 9:00pm on Friday, June 21 at 9:00pm.
Best case - services maybe restored early morning Saturday.  Worst case - services may not be restored until sometime Sunday, June 23, 2002.
You may wish to try to connect from time to time.

The Seventh Circuit Judicial Conference is scheduled for May 6 and 7, 2002.
Therefore, the Judges of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois will not be sitting on May 6 and May 7, 2002.
View Order

IT IS ORDERED that General Order No. 02-02 dated March 26, 2002 regarding the assignment
of Chapter 7, Chapter 11, and Chapter 13 cases is amended to provide that Judge Robert Ginsberg will no longer be assigned any new Chapter 7, Chapter 11, and Chapter 13 cases, or related adversary proceedings.
View Order

IT IS ORDERED that all pending Lake County Chapter 7 cases, all pending Chapter 13 cases, and any related Adversary Proceedings, except the cases listed below and any related Adversary Proceedings thereto, on the calendar of Judge Ronald Barliant are reassigned to Judge Jack B. Schmetterer.
View Order

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of Illinois would like to host a weekly demonstration of our Evidence Presentation equipment.  
The demonstration will be held in Courtroom 760, once a week on Thursdays between 1:00pm - 3:00pm. 
The demonstration is by appointment only.

Due to certain technical difficulties the court will not commence billing for access to case document images until September 4, 2001. In the meantime, we will continue to keep the billing structure in place to help you become acquainted with the new screens.

Important Notice

Effective Monday, September 4, 2001, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois will charge a fee of $.07 per page for users accessing public records in individual cases through the court’s Internet site. The access fee of $.07 per page will apply to electronic dockets and imaged documents. Access to other areas of the court’s Website, i.e., local rules, court forms, news items, court calendars, opinions,

etc. will remain available at no cost. The fee applies to the United States. As of September 4, 2001, users will need a PACER account to gain access to electronic dockets and imaged documents. Users of our dial-in service can continue to use the login and password previously issued to them. If you do not have a PACER account, link to http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/register.html or call the PACER Service Center at (800) 676-6856 to obtain a PACER Registration Form. It takes about a week to receive a login and password from the PACER Service Center.

The court may, for good cause, exempt persons or classes of persons from the fees, in order to avoid unreasonable burdens and to promote public access to such information. Exemptions may be granted as the exception, not as the rule. The exemption language is intended to accommodate those users who might otherwise not have access to the information in this electronic form. It is not intended to provide a means by which a court would exempt all users. Requests for exemptions should be directed to Chief Judge Susan Pierson Sonderby.

The access fee of $.07 per page was adopted by the Judicial Conference of the United States at it’s September 1998 meeting.

The Office of the Cook County Treasurer has informed the Bankruptcy Court that property records can only be located by the property index number (PIN), not by owner’s name or property address. Real estate tax sales may go forward after bankruptcies are filed unless that office gets notice of the PIN number (shown on tax bill for each real estate parcel) along with notice of the bankruptcy filing.
In order to avoid tax sales and the additional cost to set them aside, PIN numbers for each parcel of real estate for which a tax debt is due should be listed as the “account number” called for on Schedule “D”. All correspondence with the Office of the County Treasurer, including notice of the bankruptcy filing, should state the PIN number for each real estate parcel affected.
May 18, 2001

Trustees' Exemption from Public Access Fees
View Order

Beginning Thursday, April 5, 2001 (and every Thursday thereafter) help is available at
The Dirksen Federal Courthouse 219 S. Dearborn St. – Room 622
The Help Desk is open from 11:00 A.M. – 2:00 P.M.

Sponsored by
the Pro Bono Bankruptcy Subcommittee of the Chicago Bar Association Bankruptcy and Reorganization Committee

The Office of the Cook County Treasurer has informed the Bankruptcy Court that it will undertake to obtain a sale-in-error determination from the State Court with respect to any tax sale conducted after a bankruptcy case was filed by or against the legal or beneficial owner of the property. See 35 ILCS 200/21-310.
Requests should be made to the

This procedure may be more efficient and less expensive than proceeding to enforce the automatic stay.

March 29, 2001

Bankruptcy Judges for Northern District of Illinois will not be sitting on May 21-22, 2001
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Pursuant to Bankruptcy Rule 400(B) the U. S. Bankruptcy Court will require the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission identification number be included on all petitions, pleadings and other paper offered for filing. Clerk’s office employees will use this number to identify attorneys in our case management database. At present we use a combination of letters from the attorney’s first name and last names. This has caused some confusion when two attorneys have similar names. Using the Attorney identification number will improve the accuracy of our database. We need your cooperation.
This is effective immediately.
Thank you.
Wayne E. Nelson
Bankruptcy Clerk

The Judicial Conference, at its September 2000 session, approved amendments to Official Bankruptcy Form 7, the Statement of Financial Affairs. This form must be completed by the debtor in every bankruptcy case.

The form has been amended to provide additional information requested by taxing authorities, pension fund supervisors, and governmental units charged with environmental protection and regulation. Four new questions have been added to the form.

The new questions concern:

     • community property owned by a debtor and the debtor’s non-filing spouse or former spouse (Question 16),
     • environmental information (Question 17),
     • any consolidated tax group of a corporate debtor (Question 24), and
     • the debtor’s contributions to any employee pension fund (Question 25).

 

In addition, every corporate or partnership debtor and every individual or joint debtor who has been in business within six years before filing the petition must answer Questions 19-25.

 

This is an enlargement of the two-year period previously specified. The instructions ontained in the form also have been amended to make it clear that individual or joint debtors who have not been in business, as defined in the form, within the six years prior to filing should not answer Questions 19 through 25 but proceed directly to the signature page of the form.

 

The amended form is also available from the Internet at http://www.uscourts.gov/bankform/ . Alternatively, from “www.uscourts.gov,” click on “For Public Review,” scroll down and click on “Federal Rulemaking,” then click on “Official Bankruptcy Forms.”

 

The amended form is effective now but bankruptcy forms publishers and software vendors will require a reasonable time to produce and distribute the new version. Until the new form becomes widely available, bankruptcy case trustees and creditors who need the additional information required by the form must request the debtor to furnish it separately, either at the meeting of creditors or by other means.

Reassignment of Kane County Calendar of Judge Robert E. Ginsberg
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Reassignment of Judge Lefkow’s Chapter 13 Cases
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Attention attorneys in Chapter 13 cases: Effectively immediately, please begin using the new Chapter 13 Fee Application and Order, copies of which can be found at Form Orders Nos. 23 and 23a on the court's website.

One of the goals of Chief Judge Sonderby is to take a fresh look at our processes and procedures to determine if they can be improved, streamlined or simplified by making greater use of our computers and the court's Web site.

One example is that some important case information does not appear on the Web site in chapter 13 cases, such as claimants, creditors and images of proof of claim forms.

To increase the information available to our customers and reduce the flow of paper between the clerk's office and the standing trustees, the clerk's office will begin imaging proof of claim forms in chapter 13 cases, preparing and sending notices to creditors and other parties, and maintaining the claim's register on all chapter 13 cases filed on and after January 3, 2000. The standing trustees will continue to perform these functions on chapter 13 cases filed before this date.

If a chapter 13 plan is submitted with the petition, the section 341 meeting date and confirmation hearing date will be assigned when the case is filed. Notices will be sent to all parties within a week of filing. A copy of the plan and a proof of claim form will be included with the notice. All claims will be recorded and imaged and available for viewing on our Web site (www.ilnb.uscourts.gov),

To facilitate the docketing and imaging of the chapter 13 plan, please submit the plan as a separate document. Do not attach it to the petition. An original and 2 copies of the plan are required.

If a petition is filed without a plan, but within the 15 days required by FRBP 3015(b), the section 341 meeting date and confirmation hearing date will be assigned and a notice sent to all parties within a week of the filing of the plan.

Failure to file a plan timely in accordance with FRBP 3015(b) may result in the dismissal of the case.

Kenneth S. Gardner
Bankruptcy Clerk
Northern District of Illinois

The Judges of the Bankruptcy Court have compiled a set of orders for use in Northern District Of Illinois Bankruptcy cases.
They are available in the FORMS section of the website under "LOCAL BANKRUPTCY FORM ORDERS".

Effective October 1, 1999, Glenn B. Stearns is appointed Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.
All Pending Chapter 13 cases from the Counties of DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, LaSalle, and Will assigned to Standing Trustee Elaine Jensen and Standing Trustee Tom Vaughn, at the close of business September 30, 1999, will be reassigned to Glenn B. Stearns.
All newly filed Chapter 13 cases in DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, LaSalle and Will Counties will be assigned to Glenn B. Stearns.
Mr. Stearns will maintain an office located at 4343 Commerce Court, Suite 120, Lisle, Illinois, 60532.  His telephone number is (630) 577-1313.

The Federal Courthouse building at 219 South Dearborn, Chicago has been renamed to the Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse

View Announcement

Due to the appointment of Elaine Jensen as Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Illinois, effective August 1, 1999, all pending Chapter 13 cases assigned to Jack McCullough, as of the close of business July 31, 1999, will be reassigned to Elaine Jensen.
All newly filed Chapter 13 cases for Judges Ginsberg, Katz, Squires and Doyle in Cook County will be assigned to Elaine Jensen.

Effective July 1, 1999 Thomas Vaughn is appointed Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, to replace Craig Phelps who is retiring.
All pending Chapter 13 cases assigned to Craig Phelps as of the close of business June 30, 1999 will be reassigned to Thomas Vaughn.
All newly filed Chapter 13 cases for Judges Schmetterer, Barliant, Wedoff and Lefkow in Cook, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, LaSalle and Will counties will be assigned to Thomas Vaughn.
All newly-filed Chapter 13 cases for Judges Ginsberg and Squires in Kane and DuPage counties will be assigned to Thomas Vaughn.

Effective July 1, 1999, All Written Opinions of the Judges of the Bankruptcy Court will be posted on the court's Web Site.
The opinions are located under the specific Judge's page on the Web Site and may be viewed and downloaded in PDF or WordPerfect format.

The updated Minute Order Form is now available in the Forms section of the website.

View Announcement