***Effective: June 1, 2006***

• Order Amending Local Rules and Forms
• Notice of Adoption

Notice of Proposed Local Rule and Form Amendments to be effective June 1, 2006. Public comment on the proposed amendments should be received by May 26, 2006.

http://www.rib.uscourts.gov/FedLocalBapRules/04/localrules.htm

New Filing Fees Become effective October 17, 2005

The new statutory filing fee amounts - $220 for Chapter 7; $150 for Chapter 13; and $1,000 for Chapter 11 - become effective on October 17, 2005. The $39 administrative fee must be added to each of those new fee amounts. In addition, there is a $15 trustee fee for Chapter 7 cases. Total filing fees for each of the 3 Chapters are listed below:

Chapter 7 - $ 274
Chapter 13 - $ 189
Chapter 11 - $ 1,039

BANKRUPTCY REFORM ACT SIGNED INTO LAW

The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 was recently signed into law. While most of the provisions take effect 180 days after enactment, some provisions of the Act are now effective. The Letter from the Clerk outlines those sections of the Act which became effective upon enactment.

NOTICE OF CLERK'S OFFICE FILING PROCEDURES: Effective May 2, 2005

All paper documents brought to the Clerk's Office must be scanned in the public area before filing. A scanner for public use will be located in the Public Area for this purpose. In lieu of scanning, Non-ECF users have the option of submitting documents on diskette or cd in .pdf format, along with the original paper documents.

Due to Budget and Staff reductions, the public hours of the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Rhode Island are being reduced. Effective September 7, 2004, public access to the Clerk's Office will be limited to 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Attorneys should be made aware that 1) there is no verification of these values by pay.gov; and 2) changing any of these fields on the pay.gov screen does not affect their CM/ECF data, so any needed changes should by made via “Maintain Your ECF Account”.

When the attorney clicks the Continue button, a summary screen is displayed: The attorney must click the Authorization checkbox before clicking the Make Payment button. If processing is successful, a receipt generated by CM/ECF is displayed; the receipt will now have a link for printing, and the transaction number will have a different format (if the attorney entered an email address screen shown above, he will also receive a receipt from Pay.gov).

SIXTH AMENDED ADMINISTRATIVE GENERAL ORDER
ESTABLISHING PROCEDURES FOR FILING, SIGNING, MAINTAINING,
AND VERIFYING PLEADINGS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS
IN THE ELECTRONIC CASE FILING (ECF) SYSTEM

New Motion to Lift Stay report available on the court website. This report is updated nightly.

• Order Amending Local Rules and Forms
• Notice of Adoption

     Rules  5005-1, 9004-1 and 9004-2

***Effective: December 1, 2003***

• Order Adopting December 1, 2003 Rules and Forms
• Notice of Adoption - Amendments to the Local Rules and Forms
• Revised Amended (P.3 and P.4)
• Revised Amended Appendix Changes (V and IX)

Personal Bankruptcy Filings Continue to Rise in Fiscal Year 2003

Table F BANKRUPTCY CASES COMMENCED, TERMINATED AND PENDING DURING THE 12-MONTH PERIODS ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2002 AND 2003

Table F2 BUSINESS AND NONBUSINESS BANKRUPTCY CASES COMMENCED, BY CHAPTER OF THE BANKRUPTCY CODE,
DURING THE 12-MONTH PERIOD ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2003

Table F2_3 BUSINESS AND NONBUSINESS BANKRUPTCY CASES COMMENCED, BY CHAPTER OF THE BANKRUPTCY CODE, DURING THE 3-MONTH PERIOD ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2003

NEW MISCELLANEOUS FEE SCHEDULE
Changes will become effective on 11/1/03

Contact: Susan M. Thurston, Clerk             Phone: (401) 528-4477, ext. 30
U.S. Bankruptcy Court                               Fax: (401) 528-4470
380 Westminster Mall, 6th Floor                E-Mail: Susan_Thurston@rib.uscourts.gov
Providence, RI 02903

RHODE ISLAND BANKRUPTCY COURT GOES LIVE ON ELECTRONIC FILING SYSTEM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PROVIDENCE, RI [October 1, 2003] - On April 23, 2003, it was with mixed emotions that the Rhode Island Bankruptcy Court shut down its 15 year old BANCAP machine, and powered up its new case management system known as "Case Management/Electronic Case Files", or CM/ECF for short, which system includes the ability to accept court filings electronically. Now, five months after going live internally, the Rhode Island Bankruptcy Court is pleased to announce the October 1, 2003 commencement of electronic filing for the bar. Across the country, the federal courts are leading the implementation of e-filing and, here in Rhode Island, we are proud to be the first court in the state to offer electronic filing to the legal community.

With continuous training under way, the first "wave" of attorneys have successfully completed the mandatory four hour training session required in order to use the electronic filing system. We heartily congratulate the following brave and venturous bar members: Peter Berman, John Boyajian, Mark Buckley, Leonard DePasquale, Stacy Ferrara, Lisa Geremia, Janet Goldman, Peter Iascone, Christopher Lefebvre, Charles Pisaturo, Russell Raskin, Andrew Richardson, Thomas Quinn, and Marc Wallick. A special kudos to attorneys Marc Wallick and Stacy Ferrara for being our first electronic filers. Marc wasted no time ushering in a new era of court accessibility by filing at 6:30 am!

In addition to the detailed training classes, which begin in November for all interested attorneys, the Court will also offer monthly electronic filing orientation sessions for inquiring attorneys and their staffs. This information packed hour will include an overview of the court's ECF training policy and syllabus; a review of the court's newly issued amended Administrative General Order setting forth electronic filing procedures; a brief demonstration of the electronic filing system; and a discussion of the court's web resources, email management issues, and the hardware and software requirements for using the system. The first ECF orientation session will be held on Wednesday, October 15, 2003 at 2:00 pm in the courtroom, and thereafter every third Wednesday of the month. We hope the orientation sessions will serve to answer basic questions about using the system and will inspire attorneys to sign up for training so they can start filing electronically!

After each orientation, attorneys will have the opportunity to sign up for ECF training to become registered users in the system. Two different classes will be offered, one for debtors' counsel, and another for creditors' counsel. Frequency of the training classes will be scheduled based on demand. For more training information please visit our website, www.rib.uscourts.gov.

Once trained and registered on the CM/ECF system, attorneys will be able to file and view court documents from their office, home or anywhere with Internet capability -- 24 hours a day/7 days a week. Participating attorneys receive automatic email notification of case activity; will have the ability to download and print documents; and will be able to electronically access case files simultaneously with other users.

The CM/ECF system uses standard computer hardware, an Internet connection and a browser, and accepts documents in Portable Document Format (PDF). The system is user friendly - filers just prepare a document using a word processing software, then convert it to PDF. After logging onto the court's web site with a court-issued password, the filer fills out several screens with information that serves as the basis for the docket entry, attaches the document and submits it to the court. A notice verifying court receipt is generated and sent by email to the filer automatically. Other parties in the case also receive email notification as soon as any action is taken in the case.

There are no added fees for filing documents over the Internet using CM/ECF; although existing document filing fees do apply.

NOTICE OF PROCEDURAL CHANGE:
AMENDMENTS ADDING/DELETING CREDITORS ON SCHEDULES D, E AND F, OR THE MATRIX

As a result of issues regarding end of fiscal year close out and the introduction of the credit card module in cm/ecf, we have been required to change our live ECF date to October 1, 2003, which is the beginning of the government's fiscal year. We also believe this change in date will allow those who participated in training a longer time to practice in the test database before going live. A few additional announcements:

1. The TEST database will be down all day today, Thursday, September 18, in order for the court to copy the train database into test. This will provide an extensive database of cases for you to practice in. The TEST database should be back on line tomorrow morning (or maybe even later today -- just check) and will be populated with substantial case data. To locate a case number to practice in, go to the Reports Menu and run a Cases Report for a couple year period (ie 1/1/2000-1/1/2003) and a list of pending cases in the database will display. You may file test documents in any of these cases no matter what chapter.

2. To help the wave one attorneys/trustees get familiar with the email notification part of the system, we will commence the email Notice of Electronic Filing in all cases you are involved in beginning Monday, September 22, 2003. This means that every time a case manager dockets something in a case you are a participant in, you will receive an email notice. If you prefer to receive the daily summary of these notices, you should go to the Utilities Menu, Maintain Your ECF Account, Email Information link, and check the Send a Daily Summary Report.

3. For the Chapter 7 Trustee Group -- you may begin filing your 341 meeting results IMMEDIATELY in the LIVE system. This is the only electronic filing event that should be used before the October 1 live date. This will enable you to reflect the action taken at the meeting and will eliminate having to file a paper Report of No Distribution.

4. The Court will be issuing a General Order very shortly that will require, among other things, that the Debtor bring a true and accurate copy of their bankruptcy petition and schedules to the Section 341 meeting. This will assist the Trustees in conducting the meeting of creditors. The court is still working on the program to download the petition directly to a laptop and will reschedule that training as soon as it is ready.

***Effective August 5, 2003***
First Amended Administrative General Order Establishing Procedures for Filing, Signing, Maintaining, and Verifying Pleadings and Other Documents in the Electronic Case Filing (ECF) System

Administrative General Order Forms A-D

On April 24, 2003, the Rhode Island Bankruptcy Court converted all its existing case information from Bancap to a new system known as CM/ECF. Therefore, docket information for ALL CASES (both prior to and after April 24) is currently available on this new system and in real time. You may access ALL case information using the following link.
** NOTE: Case images are still being converted over to CM/ECF from the "old" system. You may not be able to access these images in CM/ECF until we have completed this process (these images may be available in WebPacer-see the information below). We appreciate your patience during this time.

To go to CM/ECF

Images of documents filed with the court PRIOR TO April 24 in any case before 03-11500, currently remains located on the Web Pacer server. You may access these document images using the following link. During the next several weeks, the court will be moving these images to the CM/ECF server so that eventually everything will be located in one place.

To go to WebPacer

The new address is:
IRS
Insolvency Unit
380 Westminster Street, 4th Floor
Providence, RI 02903