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Fillable Form Order Information

The court developed a facility to process orders electronically, requiring the use of fillable form orders, effective November 1, 2010. The benefit to all participants is the efficient, accurate, and prompt posting of orders to the docket.

Fillable Form Order

The fillable form order is a pre-formatted Adobe Acrobat PDF which places information in various text fields. The process allows the filer and the court to make modifications to the proposed order.

Training Lesson

This lesson demonstrates how to complete the order form and how to save the order form. Click Here to view the Training Lesson on Using the Fillable Order Form.

Best Practice

Download and save a copy of the court's fillable form orders, bankruptcy and adversary. Edit each form with firm and attorney specific information and save as a template. You may wish to create templates of frequently used orders. Each time you wish to submit a proposed order, add the order specific information to your template and save using a new, unique file name. Using a template as opposed to a previously submitted proposed order will optimize the file size of the order you submit.

When filing a motion and attaching a proposed order, always choose Proposed Order from the Category list.  If not filing a proposed order as an attachment select Bankruptcy Events > Other > Proposed Order and be certain to relate the Proposed Order to the correct motion.

Practices to Avoid

Do not use the same proposed order over and over again, changing only the debtor info, saving to the same or even a new name.  The nature of the form is that history may be stored in the document causing the file to  grow in size.

Do not complete the fillable form order, print it and scan.  Doing so will prevent the court software from processing the document electronically.  Once the form is completely filled, use the Acrobat “Save As” function to give the form a name meaningful to you.

Do not edit your documents using an earlier version of Adobe Acrobat than that used to create the document.  Editing with an older version of Acrobat will cause trouble.  If you attempt to go “backwards” in your Acrobat versions Acrobat will “splash” messages to you not to proceed.  Sometimes your Adobe editing session will abort, but sometimes it will allow you to save the document.  Please do not presume that because you were able to save the file that the file is proper.  It is not and will not process correctly.

Do not add the word “Proposed” to the title of your Proposed Order.

Fillable form orders can be downloaded from the appropriate forms menu corresponding to chapter or type of form.

Frequently asked Questions

1. Why can't a scanned copy of the proposed order be submitted?
When a document is scanned, a “picture” or image of the document is created. The resulted file cannot be easily electronically “managed”. Managed in the sense that the data can not be “read” electronically and processed programmatically.

2. Does one need to purchase Adobe Acrobat?
No, the fillable forms have been designed to allow changes made using Adobe Acrobat Reader to be saved to the form.

3. It appears that one may edit docketed fillable orders. This also appears to be true with other fillable documents on the docket. The Chapter 13 Model Plan for example.
When a fillable PDF is viewed, one is viewing a temporary copy that is downloaded to one’s computer. Although the document may be modified such changes are made to the temporary, “downloaded” copy. One is prevented from saving the edited document to the docket by application security. Documents may only be added to the docket using the CM/ECF application.

4. Is there a limit to the amount of information that may be placed in the Fillable Order Form?
The “In Re” field consists of 5 rows of information. The order title field will expand to 3 lines. The order text area will automatically expand to multiple pages as needed.

5. Can one add the judge's signature to the Fillable Order Form?
No, a signed copy of an order is docketed only by the court when the order has been granted by the judge. The granted order entered on the docket is "flattened", to remove form fields.

6. Is there a form and process for agreed orders?
Though this functionality is being contemplated it is not available at this time.

7. Unable to save the order after editing.
If one only sees a printer on the top bar of the order the order may have been opened directly from the court’s website and Adobe Acrobat is set to “Display” PDF’s in the browser. The order must be saved to the local computer and then opened with Adobe Acrobat or the Acrobat option to “Display PDF in Browser” must be changed so the full version of Acrobat will launch when a PDF is opened.

8. Can footnotes be added to the Fillable Form Order?
No, footnotes may not be added to the order.

9. May a Macintosh computer be used?
Absolutely, but you will need to use Adobe Acrobat Reader or a full licensed copy of Adobe Acrobat, not the "built-in" PDF viewer supplied by Apple, to make and save changes to the form.

Before making any changes to your computer environment the court recommends you seek the help of your technical support resources.  Please consult your technical resources.

10. Where can I send my thoughts and issues?
Please use the court’s Court Feedback.