Implementation of BAPCPAMaking It Work

<p>Shortly after Congress passed, and the
President signed, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer
Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA) into law, it became apparent that there
was a potentially overwhelming amount of work that had to be done to
prepare for the implementation of the new law by Oct. 17, 2005, when
most of its provisions became effective.

</p><p>The first task undertaken by court staff was to quickly become
familiar with the details of the new law—specifically, what were
the changes and how did they impact the court's operations? ABI played a
key role from the outset by publishing, in one convenient location on
its Web site, information, commentaries and references on the new law's
provisions.

</p><p>Most courts immediately put together internal working groups to
review the law's changes and then identify what would be needed at the
local level to implement these changes. At the same time, the
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC) formed a special
Bankruptcy Reform Legislation Working Group whose mission was "to
provide assistance to the Administrative Office by reviewing the
500-page bill and identifying the new work that needs to be performed by
clerk's office staff, identifying the best methods and strategies for
performing the new tasks, and estimating how much time the new tasks
will take to perform." This group was composed of bankruptcy judges and
clerks who sought important and effective feedback from the field in
order to put together a "Table of Guidance" that highlighted the major
changes and set forth new procedures for the courts to address these
changes. This document served as the basis for which the courts
instituted their local procedures. For changes in a particular court's
procedures, please refer to its Web site by going to <a href="http://www.uscourts.gov">http://www.uscourts.gov</a&gt; and clicking
on "court links."

</p><p>In addition, the Judicial Conference of the U.S. Advisory Committee
on Bankruptcy Rules condensed a process that would normally take years
into six months and promulgated interim rules and form changes to
implement the new law. Information on the interim rules and form changes
can be found at: <a href="http://www.uscourts.gov/rules/interim.html">http://www.uscourts.gov/rul…;.

</p><blockquote><blockquote>
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<big><i><center>
[T]he bankruptcy courts were slammed by a record 625,000 bankruptcy case
filings (40 percent of the case volume for all of 2004) during the first
16 days of October.
</center></i></big>
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</blockquote></blockquote>

<p>At the same time, the Bankruptcy Judges Division of the AOUSC updated
its Bankruptcy Basics publication to include the changes brought about
by the new law. An updated version of this publication can be viewed at
<a href="http://www.uscourts.gov/bankruptcycourts/bankruptcybasics/html">http://…;.
Lastly, an updated version of CM/ECF was developed to provide the
electronic software and tools to allow the bar and the public to access
and utilize the new and/or revised documents resulting from the
legislative changes.

</p><p>The culmination of all of these extraordinary efforts was that on
Oct. 17, 2005, the bankruptcy courts and their clerk's offices were
exceptionally prepared to serve the public and the bar in meeting the
new requirements of BAPCPA. What makes this achievement even more
remarkable is that in addition to having to go through the process just
described, the bankruptcy courts were slammed by a record 625,000
bankruptcy case filings (40 percent of the case volume for all of 2004)
during the first 16 days of October (see chart). A later article in this
series will provide statistics and details on post-Oct. 17 developments.
As of the date of this article, a significant drop in case filings
occurred during the 30-45 days after Oct. 17. Since that time, the
general trend has been a gradual increase to an average level of
approximately 50 percent of pre-BAPCPA filings with a continued upward
trend.

</p><p></p><center><img src="/AM/images/journal/clerkchart3-06.gif" alt="" height="318" width="504">