Courthouse Direct has added a free bankruptcy index search to its collection of free public records, which now include nationwide (sort of) real property, many Recorder indexes, and Texas marriage, divorce and death indexes.

Search the bankruptcy records by name, date, filing state, type of filing, city, state or the the last 4 digits in the Social Security number. The asterisk wildcard can be used after a partial first name. The results list returns the court location, full name of the party, the date of the filing and the filing type. The filing type is not very useful because it describes the subject (defendant 1 or 2 or “other”), not the nature of the court filing. Further details are available for a fee, or you can go to PACER, which is less costly. The through dates are not specified, except that the party search is complete starting in 2001. I found California cases in one jurisdiction from 1985. Other states had filings from the early 1990’s but most seemed to be from the 2000’s. Courthouse Direct bankruptcy data comes from the commercial service AACER, which does not have a free lookup.

One caution: The bankruptcy search only works in Internet Explorer!

Visit this federal government site for a glossary of bankruptcy terms.