United States Bankruptcy Court District Of Massachusetts

REVIEWING CASE FILES: Bankruptcy and Adversary files are available for review between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. each business day. If you do not have the case number, you may locate it by using the Alphabetical Case Index or PACER terminal at the counter in the Clerk's Office.

Pleadings are filed chronologically, from bottom to top in the right-hand section of the folder, so that the original pleading that initiated the bankruptcy or adversary proceeding will be found at the bottom of the file, and the most recently filed pleadings on top. Pleadings are also numbered sequentially. All documents, except orders, are time-stamped; orders are signed and dated by the judge, then docketed and numbered. If you have any questions or difficulty in locating or identifying a document, please ask for assistance. Proofs of Claim for corporations and certain other cases are maintained separately from the case folder; to review them, you must request them specifically. Proofs of Claim in all other cases will be found in the left-hand section of the case folder. Removing files from the office is absolutely forbidden. You may copy pleadings in a file at copiers available at the counter, and nowhere else. You may ONLY remove pleadings from the file to make copies of them, and must replace them in the order in which you found them. In any other instance, removing any pleadings from the file is absolutely forbidden by federal statute.

You must  return all files in proper order. The Clerk's Office is the keeper of the records and as such is responsible for maintaining their accuracy and integrity. Your Failure to return files in proper order violates the mission of this office and will be deemed sufficient grounds for refusal by this office to continue to provide you with case files.

Case files that are the subject of hearings are in Chambers prior to the hearing, These files may therefore be unavailable for review until returned from Chambers.

Title 18 United States Code Section 2071(a) states:

a) Whoever willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to do so, or, with intent to do so takes and carries away any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

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