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.

The Second Circuit, Court of Appeal for California (Los Angeles) has published an opinion upholding last year’s ruling by the Superior Court that divorce proceedings cannot be closed to the public. I previously wrote about the case in which Ronald Burkle sought to have portions of his divorce file sealed. The Circuit Court summary mirrored the conclusions of the lower court: the court should not be mandated to suspend discretion over the sealing of specific documents

Family Code section 2024.61 requires a court, upon the request of a party to a divorce proceeding, to seal any pleading that lists and provides the location or identifying information about the financial assets and liabilities of the parties. We conclude that section 2024.6 is unconstitutional on its face. The First Amendment provides a right of access to court records in divorce proceedings. While the privacy interests protected by section 2024.6 may override the First Amendment right of access in an appropriate case, the statute is not narrowly tailored to serve overriding privacy interests. Because less restrictive means exist to achieve the statutory objective, section 2024.6 operates as an undue burden on the First Amendment right of public access to court records.