US Bankruptcy Courts Protect Privacy

A December, 2006 article in the US Federal Courts newsletter "The Third Branch" described the Bankruptcy Courts response to the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA). The article states that "Although the federal courts already have in place a policy on privacy and public access to electronic case files (http://www.privacy.uscourts.gov/b4amend.htm), Section 315 of the Act specifically required that the Director of the Administrative Office (AO) establish procedures for safeguarding the confidentiality of the required tax information."

The article further states that "(u)nder the guidance issued by the AO, no tax information filed with the bankruptcy court or otherwise provided by the debtor will be available to the public on the Internet, on the Judiciary’s electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information from records, or through the courts’ Case Management/Electronic Case Files system. For non-court users of any of these systems or networks, a docket report will indicate only that tax information has been filed."