In implementing the Bankruptcy Reform Act, Congress also imposed new statistical reporting requirements on the judiciary. As a result, all bankruptcy courts are required to report a large number of case statistics directly to the Administrative Office of the Courts via new version CM/ECF 3.1 by October 20, 2006. Although Version 3.1 is designed to automate such reporting, the counting of certain motions, orders, etc. requires case administration procedures and nomenclature which are not used in the District (and many other efficient Districts). For instance, Congress wishes to know how many motions to value collateral are filed in chapter 13 cases and the proposed version of CM/ECF to be used for such counting will not record the motion if included as part of our District’s plan confirmation process. To further complicate matters, the newest version of CM/ECF was only recently delivered and the designers have not yet answered the problems raised by this and many other courts. Therefore, for the time being certain adjustments may have to be made in the manner of filing documents in order to capture and count the document for the purposes required by Congress.
The Clerk’s office is working hard to simplify the changes as much as possible. The judges request your cooperation and best efforts in accommodating the new requirements on short notice and your patience as we look for long term solutions. Details on how we will address this latest challenge will be posted on the web page and incorporated into the Participant’s Guide in the near future.