United States Government

Information may not be reliable

Public Notice In Re: Amended Interim Rule 1007 and New and Revised Official Bankruptcy Forms
Executive Summary Re: BAPCPA Statistical Requirements
10.06.06 Note Concerning General Orders

*Please note, the Notice below which was originally posted on 11.23.2010 has been revised.

Maintenance is scheduled for the GANB CM/ECF Live server (to apply SAN firmware flashing). We will be taking the server off-line to do this.
Our plan is to start this effort at 7:30 a.m. EST on Saturday, November 20, 2010. The effort should be completed by 12:30 p.m. EST on that same day.
Thanks for your anticipated understanding !

The Honorable James R. Sacca joined the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia on October 21, 2010. Judge Sacca began receiving new case assignments on October 25, 2010 and his chambers page is now available. Please see the left frame of our web site, click "Chambers" and select his name to view his Chambers page. Additional information will be added as soon as it becomes available.
M. Regina Thomas, Clerk of Court, and the staff of the Clerk's Office, welcome Judge Sacca to our Court.

Effective October 25, 2010 all Atlanta Division Chapter 13 cases assigned to Judge W. Homer Drake, Jr. and Judge Robert E. Brizendine will be reassigned to Judge James R. Sacca. All previously noticed hearings scheduled for Courtroom 1202 and previously noticed deadlines remain the same. Hearings scheduled going forward will be held in Courtroom 1404.
Adam M. Goodman will remain the Chapter 13 Trustee assigned to these cases.
If you have any questions, please contact Judge Sacca's Courtroom Deputy, Josette Glasper El, at (404) 215-1790.
Please refer to Judge Sacca's Chambers page at www.ganb.uscourts.gov for further information.

GANB CM/ECF will be unavailable for your use from 8:00 p.m. ET until 10:00 p.m. ET on Friday, October 22nd.
We will be upgrading our network switches here in Atlanta this weekend, and there will be no network connectivity during the switch-over.
An email will be sent when service has been completely restored.
Thank you for your patience and cooperation with this upgrade.

Multi-Court Voice Case Information System - MCVCIS
Toll Free 1-866-222-8029.
Press 18 to access the Georgia Northern Bankruptcy Court
MCVCIS provides the public automated case information. This voice case information system can be accessed from any touch tone telephone and is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, except for system maintenance. A computer and modem are NOT necessary to access the MCVCIS System.

New cases and adversary proceedings will typically appear in MCVCIS one to two days after filing.
MCVCIS is provided free of charge.
To access this information system and obtain information concerning Northern District of Georgia bankruptcy cases and adversary proceedings, please follow the instructions set forth below.

Using a touch-tone telephone dial 1-866-222-8029. A computer synthesized voice will answer the call and ask you to select a language. Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish.

You will then be asked to select a bankruptcy court district. For information concerning Northern District of Georgia bankruptcy cases and adversary proceedings, press 18.

The system allows 5 searches per call. For instructions on using the system, press 1. You may search for cases by case number, by a debtors name, or by a debtors social security or tax ID number.

Enter the four digit year in which the case was filed by pressing the keys on your telephone corresponding with the numbers in the year.

Enter the last five digits of the case number.

Press the keys on your telephone corresponding to the letters in the name. Use the 1 key to enter the letters Q and Z; do not attempt to type in spaces between names, or characters (such as apostrophes and hyphens) that are not letters.

For individuals, enter the last name, first name, and middle initial, if possible, followed by the # sign.

To enter the name of a company, type the company name, omitting suffixes such as Inc. and Corp., followed by the # sign.

To search by a social security or tax ID number, press 4.

Type the debtors full social security or tax ID number, omitting any hyphens or spaces.

MCVCIS will search the data base for the case number, name, social security number, or tax ID number entered in the System.

If the case number, name, social security number, or tax ID number entered is not found on the database, MCVCIS will respond No matching cases were found.

Call the appropriate divisional office for assistance.

If one matching case is found, MCVCIS will provide the information available for that case.

If multiple cases involving the same person are found, MCVCIS will provide the information available for the most recently filed case.

If more than one matching person is found, MCVCIS will respond Multiple matching cases were found. Please search by social security number or tax ID number.

After providing information on the first search, MCVCIS will return you to the Main Menu. To perform another search, repeat step 3 above.

After 5 searches, you will be disconnected from the System. For information concerning additional cases, please redial MCVCIS.

Name(s) of debtor(s), or principal party(ies);
Date the case was filed, whether a voluntary or involuntary petition was filed,
and the chapter under which the petition was filed;
Name and phone number of the debtors attorney;

Name of the Judge to which the cases is assigned;
Discharge and closing dates;

NOTE : Docket information is NOT available with this system.

Next Generation CM/ECF Request for Input from Additional Stakeholders

Electronic Bankruptcy Noticing ("EBN")
The U.S. Bankruptcy Courts encourage the bankruptcy community to utilize Electronic Bankruptcy Noticing ("EBN"). EBN is a free
service that allows court notices to be transmitted electronically, delivering them faster and more conveniently.
Some of the advantages to electronic noticing are:
Court notices are sent the same day they are produced by the court.
You can access your court notices 24/7.
Court notices that would be mailed to multiple locations can be routed to a centralized electronic address.
Storing court notices to your computer means you never lose a paper copy.
Court notices can easily be forwarded around the office or to your attorney.

Beginning Monday, July 12, 2010, there will be a change to the Bankruptcy Noticing Center's (the "BNC") mailing procedure involving invalid addresses.
The BNC will no longer mail a notice to an invalid address, as identified by the US Postal Service. Instead, the BNC will issue a bypass notification which will:
(1) include a copy of the notice that the BNC did not mail to the undeliverable address;
(2) identify the creditor and the undeliverable address;
(3) instruct the debtor to immediately mail the undelivered notice to the creditor;
(4) inform the debtor that the BNC will not mail future notices to the undeliverable address; and
(5) include space on the notification for the debtor to insert a corrected address.
The attached notice provides further information about the change in procedure.

The Honorable Wendy L. Hagenau joined the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia on May 25, 2010. Judge Hagenau began receiving case assignments on May 28, 2010 and her Chambers web page is now available. Please see the left frame of our web site, click "Chambers", and select her name to view her Chambers page. Additional information will be added as soon as it becomes available.

M. Regina Thomas, Clerk of Court, and the staff of the Clerk's Office, welcome Judge Hagenau to our Court.

This notice concerns General Order No. 11-2009 which was entered by the Court on December 1, 2009 to amend Interim Rule 1007-I to reflect the time computation changes in Bankruptcy Rule 1007 as part of a comprehensive package of changes to time period computation in the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, Bankruptcy related statutes and Bankruptcy Forms approved by the Judicial Conference of the United States on September 16, 2008.

CM/ECF Training Classes for Attorneys doing Debtor work for October and November 2009

Here is the "Attorney Tip Sheet" for the upcoming CM/ECF Version 3.3.2 (Emergency Software Release 1).

Here is the GANB CM/ECF Newsletter for August 2009.

New GANB CM/ECF Docket Events - The following two new docket events have been added. They are to be used when docketing Form B22A (Statement of Current Monthly Income and Means Test Calculation (Chapter 7)) on behalf of individuals who claim a temporary exclusion from the means test requirements as permitted under the National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Act of

1. Statement of Debtor's Temporary Exclusion from Means Test - to be used when the debtor is no longer on active duty; and,
2. Release from Active Duty - to be used when debtor is on active duty when the case is filed but is released from active duty later in the case.
Contact Irene Wiggins (404/215-1099) or Daniel Newsome (404/215-1057) for assistance.

Notice to all GANB CM/ECF participants - - -
The Clerk's Office was asked to implement a mechanism that would alert electronic filers attempting to file a new petition that a case was filed within the previous 7 days that matches the SSN of the case being uploaded.
We have been successful, and you will now see an alert that tells you a case already exists. You will have the option to continue if you wish. We are hopeful this new tool will be beneficial to you. Please let us know if you experience any problems.

On Thursday, September 27, 2007, the Administrative Office of the United States Courts announced that the Electronic Public Access Fee Schedule has been amended to include court-appointed pro bono attorneys among that category of persons that a court may exempt from PACER fees upon the proper showing. This amendment is effective September 18, 2007. A copy of the amended fee schedule is available by clicking HERE .

Report of Judges Attending Privately Funded Educational Programs Pursuant to Policy of the Judicial Conference of the United States approved September 19, 2006, effective January 1, 2007.

Judicial Conduct & Disability Complaint Info