The State Bar of Wisconsin's Bankruptcy, Insolvency & Creditors' Rights section, which requested this notice, says the new forms will impact attorneys in various practice areas.
Dec. 2, 2015 – As of yesterday (Dec. 1, 2015), U.S. Bankruptcy Court filers and attorneys must use new forms, including a new proof of claim form. The new forms, available online with instructions, are mandatory for all new cases.
According to the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Bankruptcy, Insolvency & Creditors’ Rights section, the new forms don’t just impact bankruptcy attorneys. Attorneys in different practice areas may be required to initiate bankruptcy court filings, including the proof of claim, on behalf of those who are not directly involved in bankruptcy on a regular basis.
These practitioners should be particularly aware of the new proof of claim form (B 410) with instructions (as well as B 410 A, B 410S-1, and B 410S-2) and any other new bankruptcy forms, including the debtors’ petition, schedules, and the bankruptcy notices that the creditor will get from the court when a bankruptcy case is filed.
The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said the new forms “are easier for debtors to understand and complete, and are designed to work with scheduled enhancements to the federal courts’ Case Management/Electronic Case Files system.”
The new forms also “make it easier for creditors and trustees to understand what assets the debtor has. It ought to reduce the need for judicial hearings or multiple meetings with the case trustee to request that information,” an update explained.
According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the most significant changes include:
Individuals and businesses will have different documents for opening cases. At present, individuals use the same filing forms as the largest corporations, and must pore through potentially confusing questions not relevant to their cases.
Plain-English instruction books are available for individual and business filers. Instructions are embedded within forms, so that filers can get immediate guidance next to the boxes they are filling out.
Property inventories have been combined into one form, and individual filers are given a comprehensive checklist to insure that relevant assets are listed.
Form layouts are simpler and more intuitive. Questions for individuals require primarily yes/no and multiple-choice responses, reducing potential for incorrect answers.
All documents have new numbers, to accommodate the new individual and nonindividual categories.
Case-opening documents for individual debtors (in contrast to corporations) have fillable PDFs, so that users can type information into the documents.
Get new forms and instructions.