Beginning a Case

In this district a bankruptcy case is commenced by the filing of a petition with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court located at 1000 Elm St. Manchester, New Hampshire. Almost all cases and pleadings are filed electronically over the internet, the only exception being for pro se filers.

A case is commenced by the filing of a voluntary petition, certificate of credit counseling, statement of financial affairs, schedules A through J, social security verification, rule 2016 statement, statement of intention with respect to secured consumer debts, certification of notice to consumer debtors, a creditor matrix, the means test, and statistical summaries. (A complete set of bankruptcy schedules is attached hereto as Exhibit A). In an emergency situation a case can be filed with just the voluntary petition, and a complete list of creditors. If that is done the rest of the schedules must be filed within 14 days.

Individual debtors must also file a certificate of credit counseling with the petition. This certificate is obtained from one of the approved credit counselors in this district. The list of approved counselors can be obtained at the courts web site: http://www.nhb.uscourts.gov/