Please visit the U.S. Courts website at www.uscourts.gov/RulesAndPolicies for more detailed information

Public Notice re: Returned Mail (Centralized Processing of Returned BNC Mail)

This month, the Judiciary’s Bankruptcy Noticing Center (BNC) contractor will begin accepting, processing and securely disposing of notices that would otherwise be returned to the bankruptcy courts by the United States Postal Service (USPS). The service will eliminate nearly all manual processing of returned mail currently performed by court personnel and will provide timely notification to debtors’ attorneys of returned notices.

Currently, BNC returned mail goes either to the court or to debtors’ attorneys. As a cost-savings and efficiency measure, bankruptcy courts have been strongly urged to have most returned mail sent to the debtor’s attorney, which provides notice that a better address for such recipient should be provided to the court. This procedure is not changing. What does change, however, is that those pieces of mail that are currently directed for return to the bankruptcy courts will now be handled in one facility through the new centralized return mail program.

Under the terms of the revised contract, the BNC contractor will have two business days from receipt to process the returned mail, and the contractor’s system will autogenerate a Notice of Returned Mail email notification to the debtor’s attorney, with a copy of the notice as a PDF attachment, advising of the returned mail by the USPS. If no attorney email address is available or if the debtor is pro se, the Notice of Returned Mail will be sent by U.S. mail to the attorney or pro se debtor, as appropriate.

Thus, beginning this month, debtors’ attorneys will start to receive returned mail in bankruptcy cases in two different ways: regular USPS mail for the majority of items where the return address is the debtor’s attorney, and email Notices of Returned Mail for returned mail that would have been sent back to the bankruptcy court.

Gary M. Gfeller becomes new Clerk of Court

On July 30, 2012, Gary M. Gfeller became the new Clerk of Court for the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut.

CM/ECF Release 4.3

The CM/ECF system will go live with Release 4.3 on April 1, 2012. This release will support the fee increase in the Public Access to Court Electronic Records  (PACER) from 8 cents to 10 cents per page, which is effective April 1, 2012. This release also contains a fix for prior billing problems for PACER users.

Click here for specific details.

Dated this 29th day of February, 2012

Please note that Standing Order 14 has been amended effective December 17th,  2010. The amended  Standing Order 14 is available here on the court's website.

Dated this 31st day of January, 2011

The court has already notified very large ISPs, such as HotMail and Yahoo.

Notice of Amendments to Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure and Official Bankruptcy Forms effective December 1, 2010. 

Click here for details.

Please note that Standing Order 12 has been amended effective July 1, 2010. The amended  Standing Order 12 is available here on the court's website.

Dated this 15th day of July, 2010

There will be NO short calendar matters heard in Bridgeport on Tuesday, September 7, 2010. Instead, short calendar matters for Bridgeport cases will be heard on Wednesday, September 8, 2010 at 2:00 pm.

Dated this 13th day of July, 2010

Please take notice that effective May 1, 2010, Standing Order No. 12 is amended to reflect that the use of Procedural Form B240A(4/10) is required for all reaffirmations agreements filed pursuant to 11 U.S.C .' 524. Usage of previously promulgated forms will not conform with this requirement. Amended Standing Order 12 is available here on the court's website.

Dated this 28th day of April, 2010

Deborah S. Hunt, Clerk

Effective March 1, 2010, Bankruptcy Judge Lorraine Murphy Weil succeeded Bankruptcy Judge Albert S. Dabrowski as Chief Judge for the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut.

Holiday Court Closings 

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut will be closed on:

Friday, November 27, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Thursday, December 31, 2009

CM/ECF  Release 3.3.3 

The CM/ECF system is expecting to go live with Release 3.3.3 on Saturday, November 7, 2009. This release will change the login page so that the following message will display when FILERS attempt to log into CM/ECF:

IMPORTANT: All filings with the court - including attachments - must comply with Fed. R. Bankr. P. 9037: Social Security or taxpayer-identification numbers; dates of birth; names of minor children; and financial account numbers may not appear, except as allowed by the rule. All filers will have to check the following box which appears under the message:

I understand that, if I file, I must comply with the redaction rules. I have read this notice. Filers must check this box and will not be able to continue logging in until it is checked.

Reaffirmation Agreement Filing Deadline, effective 8/31/09

By amendments effective December 1, 2008, Bankruptcy Rule 4008 (a) established the deadline for the filing of objections to discharge as the deadline for the filing of Reaffirmation Agreements, subject to extension by the court. While most Reaffirmation Agreements are timely filed, a substantial number are not. The court has adopted a new procedure addressing untimely filed agreements. Effective August 31, 2009, any Reaffirmation Agreement filed after the deadline for the filing Reaffirmation Agreements will result in a deficiency notice, and the matter will be set for hearing. The court may, in its discretion, extend the time at the hearing, or may strike the agreement. Additionally, the Court’s Notice of § 341 Meeting will also contain the deadline for filing a Reaffirmation Agreement.

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has been working with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), regarding archival preservation and continued use of the scanned images in the Judiciary's Case Management/Electronic Case File System (CM/ECF). There is a need to have a scanning resolution that produces a high quality document with a file size that will not hamper the length of time it takes to scan, load and retrieve documents.

In the past, the recommendation from NARA was set at 200 dots per inch (dpi). Since that time, however, NARA has published higher standards for scanning resolution, which better support archival preservation. In efforts to assist NARA in preserving and continuing the use of scanned images in the Judiciary's Case Management/Electronic Case File System, we are asking for your assistance in this effort. It is strongly recommended (although not required) that scanner settings of 300 pixels per inch (ppi) or higher be used for any scanned documents submitted to the court on CM/ECF. See guidance below.

NARA 's Acceptable Image Quality Specifications:

3.2.1 Bitonal (1-bit) scanned at 300 - 600 ppi

This is appropriate for documents that consist exclusively of clean printed type possessing high inherent contrast (e.g., laser printed or typeset on a white background Scanning at 600 ppi is recommended.

3.2.2 Gray sale (8-bit) scanned at 300 - 400 ppi

This is appropriate for textual documents of poor legibility because of low inherent contrast, staining or fading (e.g., carbon copies, thermofax, or documents with handwritten annotations or other markings), or that contain halftone illustrations or photographs. Scanning at 400 ppi is recommended.

We appreciate your cooperation in this matter. If you have any questions about this, please feel free to contact our ECF Help Desk.

Pursuant to 11 USC sec. 1328 (a) and (h) and 522(q), new Standing Order 14 provides that in order for a debtor to receive a discharge, the debtor must first file an Application for Entry of Chapter 13 Discharge , Please note that this a locally created form, and not the optional AO form.

This form will be sent to the debtors and their counsel by the Standing Chapter 13 Trustee upon filing of the Chapter 13 Final Report. The debtor must file the Application within 20 days of filing of the Final Account. The form is also available at the clerk's offices and in the Forms section of our website.

The clerk's office, upon receipt of the Application, will issue a Notice of Filing of Application for Entry of Chapter 13 Discharge. This notice will carry a 14 day bar date for the filing of any objections. If any objections are filed, a hearing will be scheduled. If no objections are filed and the debtor is otherwise eligible a discharge will enter. If the Application is not filed, the case may be closed without a discharge after notice and hearing.

*In addition to the Application for the Entry of Discharge, the debtor must also, in order to receive a discharge, file a Debtor’s Certification of Financial Management (official form B23), and a Financial Management Certificate (from agency)

Obtain the application here.

*Note... this can take a few minutes depending on the speed of your connection.   

Director's Procedural Form B 201 has been amended to advise debtors that Rule 4002 requires the debtor to notify the court of any changes in the debtor's address. As revised, Form B 201 also states that joint debtors who list the same mailing address on the bankruptcy petition, will generally receive a single copy of each notice mailed from the bankruptcy court in a jointly-addressed envelope. The revised form is effective on December 1, 2008.

(A) All cases shall be assigned by the clerk to a bankruptcy judge as follows:

(i) those cases in which the debtor resides or has its principal place of business in Fairfield or Litchfield Counties shall be assigned to the Bridgeport Division;

(ii) those cases in which the debtor resides or has its principal place of business in Middlesex or New Haven Counties shall be assigned to the New Haven Division; and

(iii) those cases in which the debtor resides or has its principal place of business in Hartford, New London, Tolland or Windham Counties shall be assigned to the Hartford Division.

Form B 23 - Debtor's Certification of Completion of Postpetition Instructional Course Concerning Financial Management
Form     No committee note. The paragraph describing Filing Deadlines at the bottom of the form was revised to include a reference to  1141(d)(5)(B).

Comments should be submitted no later than August 15, 2007 to Gary M. Gfeller, Clerk of Court, 450 Main Street, Hartford, CT 06103