Bankruptcy Courts Report Savings and other Benefits from Electronic Noticing

DeBN Logo Developed by the
Bankruptcy Court for the
Central District of California

Via press release on February 19, 2015, we learned about the US Bankruptcy court electronic noticing system.  They write:

"While business is increasingly conducted using smart phones, tablets and laptops, debtors who file for bankruptcy protection continue to receive paper copies of court notices and orders by regular mail — a practice that consumes both time and money. Thanks to a new program available through the Bankruptcy Noticing Center (BNC), debtors in participating courts now have the option of receiving court-generated notices and orders electronically.

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The program, known as Debtor Electronic Bankruptcy Noticing (DeBN), has expanded from a pilot and is open to all bankruptcy courts. DeBN is currently active in the bankruptcy courts of the Central District of California, Central District of Illinois, District of New Jersey, and District of South Carolina.

In the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California—which has the largest bankruptcy caseload in the country— an informal poll showed that debtors would prefer to receive simple notices from the court on their phones, tablets, or computers rather than in the mail." ...

"The DeBN program allows the BNC to transmit court notices and orders to debtors via email the same day they are filed in the courts. This reduces the delivery time by three or four days. A debtor wishing to receive electronic notice simply registers by completing a request form through the clerk’s office of a participating court where their case is filed. The clerk’s office creates the account through the BNC interface by entering the debtor’s case number and email address. Courts have two options for activating DeBN accounts—debtor activation via a confirmation email or automatic activation.

Another big advantage of DeBN is that the court does not have to monitor for bounce-back emails. If the email delivery fails, the BNC automatically disables the account and sends paper notices and orders to a debtor by mail." ...

"An additional DeBN bonus is that notices are transmitted to the debtors as PDF attachments, rather than as a one-time link. Debtors have easy access to their notices, as the PDF attachments can be read, forwarded to another party, saved and retrieved.

DeBN is also a money saver for the federal courts. It reduces costs for debtor noticing by up to 90 percent over the life of a case. “This is a great tool to help lessen the cost associated with bankruptcy noticing,” said Pasquale. “That’s a big motivating factor for us.”

“It is at least nine times cheaper to send an electronic court notice to the debtor in lieu of regular mail because paper and postage costs are avoided,” noted Matt Loughney, Bankruptcy Clerk for the Middle District of Tennessee and Chair of the Bankruptcy Noticing Working Group."

The full article can be found at: http://news.uscourts.gov/improved-noticing-debtors-reduces-court-costs