When filing for bankruptcy, is everything filed publicly accessible via PACER? I know bankruptcies are public records, but does that mean everything you file is public? Every debt, even personal ones? Every domain name which would otherwise be protected by registrar privacy? I don't want to pay for PACER to see an example. Can people see the forms as filed or just the judgement?
Short Answer No. Not everything that is efiled is publicly accessible. Long Answer Most documents are public, but there are default levels of security for different kinds of documents. The e-filing system can support several levels of security. Some kinds of documents can be (and routinely are as a matter of course) sealed by court order following a motion to do so. Also, every time someone efiles a document, the filing party has to certify all required redactions of documents that are efiled have been made before they are filed at the relevant levels of privacy/security. Nonetheless, the amount of information which is publicly disclosed in a bankruptcy is very substantial and far exceeds what would have to be disclosed publicly in a non-bankruptcy context, and exceeds what would have to be disclosed publicly in other kinds of litigation. The exact contours of what is and is not disclosed publicly is quite technical and detailed, and isn't all spelled out in one place. Some of it is in general national efiling rules, some is in local court rules, some is in non-rule efiling procedures, some is in standing court orders of a judge or a particular court, and some is in case specific orders, or is implicit in how the efiling system interface works. Generally speaking, the petition, summaries of finances, motions and responses and replies to them are public, as are court orders, but exhibits to motions and responses and replies are often not public. Impact Of A Recent Breach As a matter of practical reality, all sealed and protected documents on PACER were recently (within the last few months) the subject of a malicious hacking attack that compromised the privacy protections of all of electronically filed documents in the entire federal e-filing system. As security breaches go, it was one of the most epic breaches in the history of the Internet and has been attributed to Russian hackers. The federal courts, including the bankruptcy courts, are currently engaged in temporary work arounds that don't used the efiling system for documents with privacy protections as fixes are prepared and the cause of the breach is evaluated.
united-states Typically, people who have the very least assets and little prospective income expected (e.g. homeless vagrants) don't file for bankruptcy. The creditors can't get blood out of a turnip so there is no advantage of doing so. Also, often no one extends them credit in the first place, so they have few creditors in most cases. Instead, people file for bankruptcy when: They have significant assets and significant debts and want to preserve assets exempt from creditors such as equity in a house that benefits from a homestead exemption (in which case payment of a bankruptcy lawyer is a debt with priority over other debt's of the debtor in bankruptcy), and/or They have significant future income prospects and want to preserve future income by eliminating debts, and pre-pay the bankruptcy lawyer with assets saved by not paying creditors when due. These prepayments are not &quot;clawed back&quot; because paying bankruptcy lawyers is a debt that has priority in bankruptcy over other creditors, and/or They have assets that would be sold for fair less than fair market value in ordinary auction sale type debt collection methods, and would realize far more value (possibly paying off debts in full as a result) in a bankruptcy. If there is a realistic probability of payment in full of the debts in an orderly disposition of those assets, often an individual Chapter 11 bankruptcy is filed instead. Also, a simple bankruptcy in Chapter 7 for someone with no assets that are not exempt from creditors (which is the predominant form of bankruptcy filing in the U.S.) isn't expensive and is usually mass produced by paralegals with only light lawyer supervision. It can usually be done for as little as $300-$500 of attorney fees, plus filing fees and mailing fees, for a total of well under $1,000. Sometimes a bankruptcy petitioner can get friends or family to advance or give them that money for that purpose.
Is it acceptable for person A (representing themselves) to refer to person B as &quot;their neighbor&quot; instead of by their name, or would that cause the suit to be dismissed? Omitting the neighbor's name in the pleadings &amp; proceedings cannot singlehandedly cause the dismissal of a defamation suit. The matter would result in dismissal only if the plaintiff repeatedly disobeys court order(s) (if any) to disclose that information. Before the proceedings get to that point, the plaintiff will have had one or more hearings to dispute the defendant's alleged need for identifying a non-party by name. When opposing to that disclosure, the plaintiff's goal is to establish that the false narrative about robbing a neighbor at gunpoint is defamatory regardless of neighbor's name. Keep in mind that the focus in a claim of defamation is the defamed person, whereas the relevance of details such as who the non-parties are pertains to context and evidence. Lastly, the fact that a party to the suit is a pro se litigant is irrelevant from both substantial and procedural standpoints.
The official judgements do not reveal the funding for these lawyers; so where can I find this information? Nowhere. The commercial arrangements between lawyers and their clients are private and confidential like any other business transactions. You have no more right to know this then you do to know how your neighbour pays their mortgage. how could she have funded litigation in the EWHC and then EWCA before the UKSC? She may have rich parents or another benefactor who has in interest in her or the outcome of the case. She may have won the lottery. She may be the heiress of a dead rich uncle. By the way, "having" student loans does not mean you "need" student loans. Interest rates on student loans are cheap - if I need to pay $10,000 for a course and have $10,000 earning 5%, I would be nuts to use that if I could take out a loan at 3%.
You can read about the obligation to access public records under Kentucky law here. This page is the Louisville PD' statement about what is available. They state that &quot;Some items have been redacted, blurred or withheld for privacy or legal reasons&quot;, noting for example that the statute &quot;exempts from disclosure under the Open Records Act information that, if disclosed, would create an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Any further reference to redactions for personal privacy /concerns is also made pursuant to this law and/or HIPAA&quot;. The plaintiff's filing is not available and the police department has not commented, so we don't know exactly what is being demanded. However, the PD has not claimed that they are withholding the requested records for legal reasons, and the media alleges that the suit alleges that the PD lied about the existence of said records (note the double allegation). Body-worn cameras are specifically included here, and this part says that you can sue in county court. FOIA does not apply, because the Lousiville PD is not an agency of the US government.
IANAL. I am not your lawyer. The following is not legal advice. The insurance company, regardless of how you feel about their process, has it appears, to have discharged their duties, namely they have paid out two separate claims. The personal property claim has been paid to the estate as the beneficiary, while the property claim has been paid out with the mortgage company as the beneficiary. The mortgage company seems, to me (disclaimer, I work at a financial institution, albeit in an IT role), to also be reasonable. Six months is an extremely long time without contact or payment (where I work, the loss mitigation department is sent all loans that are 3 months delinquent); the fact that you, the estate executor were not aware of the passing of the debtor is of no consequence. Also, many loans contain clauses that allow the lender to accelerate the loan (i.e. demand "immediate" payment of the whole outstanding balance). So they've started foreclosure proceedings, probably about 3 months ago. As for the foreclosure proceedings: The received $45,000 will be applied to the loan. The property (not just the house, but the entire lot) will be sold at public auction, as all foreclosed houses are in the state of New York. Proceeds from the sale of the house shall be applied to paying off the loan. If the proceeds exceed the outstanding mortgage amount, the estate will be sent the remaining proceeds. If the proceeds are less than the remaining amount, the estate is retains (i.e. owes) the remaining debt. EDIT: As an example of why the noting of jurisdiction is important on this stack-exchange, Nate Eldredge has informed me that in New York, it is possible for a judge to reduce the "remaining debt" of the estate by declaring that the sold house had a higher "fair market value" than it sold for.
That book provides advice on legal writing; it is not a source of rules for legal writing. Rather than repeatedly identifying themselves using their full name, parties customarily refer to themselves in the third person, e.g., &quot;The defendant refused to waive his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial.&quot; In practice, though, pro se litigants regularly refer to themselves in the first person, and there is no formal consequence for this.
The court clerk was right. A judge is not supposed to interact with a party (at least not in the absence of the adversary) except during court hearings for which the adversary was notified and given an opportunity to attend. Also, there is no need for you to prove the mere fact that you went to court. That in itself is either inconsequential or palpable from the hearing transcripts. When you file in court papers such as a motion or a response to a motion, you may --and should-- bring an extra copy for the clerk to stamp it. That a clerk does with no objections. The stamp reflects the date on which you file your document(s). That stamp incidentally evidences that you or someone on your behalf went to court but, again, that sole fact is inconsequential. There is no such thing as "motion to appeal". A litigant may initiate an appeal, or appellate process, once the judge has decided a case in its entirety or in part. If the ruling to be appealed does not close the case, the upper court might refuse to review the issue(s) appealed until the whole case has been decided (that refusal is known as denial of the appellant's leave to appeal). Your description nowhere indicates that the judge has already made any rulings or that there have been any hearings on your matter. Your mention of prior motions suggests that you should gain acquaintance with the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure and of Appellate Procedure. Those rules cover several aspects of litigation, including motion practice, the allowed methods of service, and the requirements to file an appeal in upper courts.