How to Find Personal and Business Bankruptcy Filings

You can check if a person or business has been through bankruptcy.

Individuals and businesses often need to know if a person or a company they are involved in (or may become involved in) has ever filed for bankruptcy. This is especially the case when conducting due diligence, a comprehensive investigation of the legal, professional and financial background of a person or business. Bankruptcy filings can provide a wealth of information about how someone conducts business and who they did business with. Fortunately, there are several comprehensive resources for accessing bankruptcy information.

Instructions

1. 

   PACER provides online access to bankruptcy court records.

   Register with the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) website, which has lots of online court case information, including bankruptcy cases. Anyone can register at PACER. The registration process is cumbersome, and is handled by mail rather than online, so allow time up to 10 days for the registration process. PACER is designed for legal professionals, so be prepared for a lot of legal jargon when using the site. Note that there is no charge for searching, but there is a small charge for retrieving documents from the system. Once you have your log-in information, you can search PACER for the names of people or businesses of interest to you. The system will return bankruptcy cases, and, if requested, will also provide other legal cases in the federal court system.

2. 

   Lexis offers access to bankruptcy case information.

   Sign up for LexisNexis via credit card. Lexis (the legal half of LexisNexis) is a very rich resource for legal cases, with a much more powerful search interface than at PACER. It's very useful to have access to Lexis when you need to find bankruptcy filings or other court cases. Though LexisNexis is mostly accessed through institutional subscriptions, they also have credit card access for one time or occasional use.

3. 

   D&B gives a quick overview of business bankruptcy and credit history.

   Check companies at Dun & Bradstreet. D&B is a major provider of business credit information, and it sells company-specific reports that cover not only credit history, but legal actions, including bankruptcy filings.

Resources

• PACER: Public Access to Court Electronic Records
• LexisNexis by Credit Card
• Dun & Bradstreet: Homepage