About PlainBankruptcy

Our Mission

We believe bankruptcy data should be accessible to everyone who needs it — not just attorneys, economists, and policy researchers with the skills to extract meaning from dense judicial caseload tables. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts publishes bankruptcy filing statistics every year, but navigating these spreadsheets to understand what is happening in your state, your district, or your chapter requires expertise that most people do not have.

PlainBankruptcy closes that gap. We take published AOUSC statistical data and present it in a searchable, visual format — filing trends by chapter, state rankings, district-level breakdowns, and year-over-year comparisons — all free, no accounts required. Our goal is to make the public record of financial distress in America understandable to anyone: individuals researching their options, attorneys analyzing regional patterns, journalists covering economic trends, and policymakers evaluating the impact of bankruptcy law.

We present aggregate statistical data only — not individual case records. We do not provide legal advice or recommendations about filing. The data speaks for itself.

Editorial Standards

PlainBankruptcy uses editorial drafting to translate dense AOUSC statistical tables and bankruptcy code citations into plain-language explanations. All editorial content is reviewed by Kiznis Studio staff for accuracy against the original federal sources before publication. Statistical figures are pulled directly from the AOUSC quarterly releases — not generated, inferred, or extrapolated. Each entity page surfaces its underlying source-snapshot date; if a figure cannot be sourced to the federal record, it is omitted.

We do not publish opinion pieces, predictions, or recommendations. The site contains original analytical research (chapter trends, per-capita rankings, unemployment correlations) — these are the work of our editorial team, with methodology documented on the methodology page. Where research synthesizes external sources, those sources are linked directly inside the article.

Our Data Sources

Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC)

The primary data on PlainBankruptcy comes from the Judicial Caseload Statistics published by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The AOUSC compiles bankruptcy filing data from all 90 active federal judicial districts and publishes aggregate tables by chapter (7, 11, 12, 13), by district, and by fiscal year. This is the official source for federal bankruptcy filing statistics in the United States.

Official source: U.S. Courts Caseload Statistics.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

Economic context data — unemployment rates and labor force statistics — comes from the BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program. We use this data to provide economic context alongside bankruptcy filing trends.

U.S. Census Bureau

Population data for per-capita filing rate calculations comes from the Census Bureau's population estimates. Per-capita rates enable meaningful comparison between districts of very different sizes.

How We Process the Data

We download AOUSC caseload statistics tables and process them through the following steps:

  • Parsing and normalization: AOUSC tables are parsed by chapter, district, and fiscal year. District identifiers are normalized to match across years (court names and boundaries occasionally change).
  • Per-capita calculation: Filing counts are combined with Census population estimates to compute per-capita filing rates, enabling comparison between districts of different sizes.
  • Trend computation: Year-over-year changes, multi-year trends, and chapter composition ratios are calculated for each district and state.
  • Economic context: BLS unemployment data is joined by state and year to provide economic backdrop for filing trend analysis.
  • Rankings: States and districts are ranked by total filings, per-capita rates, and chapter-specific metrics. All rankings are derived directly from AOUSC data with no proprietary scoring.

Data Currency

PlainBankruptcy currently displays data from AOUSC Judicial Caseload Statistics covering fiscal years 2015 through 2024. The AOUSC publishes updated caseload data annually, typically in the spring following the close of each fiscal year (which ends September 30).

We update PlainBankruptcy within 30 days of each new AOUSC release. Quarterly data is sometimes available from AOUSC for more recent periods but is subject to revision in the annual release.

Editorial Independence

Content on PlainBankruptcy is compiled by our editorial team. Raw data from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC), the U.S. Trustee Program (USTP), and PACER-aggregated federal court statistics is transformed into readable profiles by our continuous editorial pipeline, validated against the source before publication. The PlainBankruptcy editorial team, operating under Kiznis Studio, is responsible for editorial standards, methodology, and corrections.

We do not accept payment, sponsorship, or promoted placement from law firms, bankruptcy attorneys, credit counseling agencies, debt-relief services, or any covered entity. Our only revenue source is contextual display advertising served by Google AdSense — advertisers do not influence which entities we cover or how we present data, and they do not receive preferential placement.

Limitations & Disclaimers

PlainBankruptcy provides statistical information only. It is not legal advice. Bankruptcy law is complex and varies significantly by state and individual circumstance.

  • Aggregate data cannot predict individual outcomes: Filing statistics describe population-level patterns. They cannot tell you whether bankruptcy is right for your specific situation.
  • Filings are not discharges: Not all filed cases result in discharge. Cases are dismissed, converted between chapters, or voluntarily withdrawn. Our data covers filings, not outcomes.
  • No individual case records: We present aggregate statistics only. Individual case records are available through PACER, the federal court system's public access portal.
  • District boundaries do not align with states: Some states have multiple federal judicial districts with very different filing patterns. State-level data aggregates across these districts.

Always consult a qualified bankruptcy attorney before making any decisions about filing. Filing statistics represent aggregate data and cannot predict individual case outcomes.

Contact

Questions, corrections, or feedback? Email us at hello@plainbankruptcy.com.

We welcome:

  • Questions about data sources or methodology
  • Reports of apparent data errors
  • Suggestions for additional data or features
  • Media and research inquiries

PlainBankruptcy is published by ", a data intelligence company that builds free, public-interest data portals from government datasets.