Bankruptcy Laws

• Bankruptcy law is the same in every state. One uniform federal law applies in all bankruptcy cases: the Bankruptcy Code, found at title 11 of the United States Code. The rules of how to proceed in bankruptcy court, however, include both the federal rules of bankruptcy procedure and also the local rules applied by each bankruptcy court. Congress intended the federal bankruptcy laws to give debtors a new start, free from the burden of debts they cannot pay.
  
  

Discharge

• A debtor's principal purpose in filing bankruptcy is generally to obtain a discharge of debt. This means that once the proceeding is completed, the debtor no longer has to pay discharged debts. A bankruptcy discharge prohibits creditors from trying to collect discharged debts, including phoning or writing letters to the debtor or appearing at her work place. The discharge only binds creditors listed in the bankruptcy filing. A debtor who has forgotten to include creditors can reopen the case to add them, but she must serve these creditors with the motion.
  
  

Motion to Reopen

• A debtor who wishes to file a motion to reopen obtains the form from the local bankruptcy court or, alternatively, downloads a form from the court's website. The debtor describes her reasons for wishing to reopen and explains any delay. She may reopen to add creditors or supplement her earlier filing if it was inaccurate or deficient. The form itself requires service on the bankruptcy court judge. In some jurisdictions, this service must be electronic. In addition, the debtor must serve every creditor -- or its attorney -- affected by the motion.
  
  

Service

• If the motion to reopen involves newly discovered creditors, the debtor needs to serve only those creditors. If the debtor seeks to reopen a dismissed case for a more general reason, she must serve all creditors. For example, if the court dismissed the debtor's bankruptcy case without discharging her debts because she failed to provide adequate documentation, the debtor may try to reopen to the case to submit that documentation. This will affect all creditors, so she must provide copies of the motion to all.