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

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.

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.