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

Thursday, December 22, 2011

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.