1. General Information
2. Bankruptcy Information Provided
3. Adversary Proceedings Information Provided
4. Phone Number
5. Sample Session

One of the major tasks the Bankruptcy Court must perform is dissemination of information about the cases it handles. This can be done over the telephone, by answering mail requests, or by assisting people who show up at the court in person.

The Case Management/Electronic Case Filing project, CM/ECF, has a supplemental inquiry facility which provides the public with easy access to the most current information. The Voice Case Information System (VCIS) allows anyone with a touch tone telephone to call the court, request information about a particular case, and have the computer read the data directly from the CM/ECF database. This is all done automatically by recorded voice and text-to-speech converter. Best of all, VCIS is available 24 hours a day including weekends and federal holidays. About the only time VCIS is not available is when the BANCAP database is being backed up.

Because VCIS queries the live database, information is available within seconds of being entered. It's always up to date.

The VCIS user is asked if they wish to select the case by either case number, the name of the debtor or party in the bankruptcy/adversary case, or Social Security number or tax ID. The caller then presses the lettered buttons on the telephone to indicate the search criteria. VCIS will retrieve and read the matching case(s). The Bankruptcy Court for the District of Alaska allows callers to request information for five (5) cases per call. An inquiry only takes a few minutes to complete, and most commonly asked information is provided to the caller. Note that because extraction to real-time, there may be pauses while VCIS waits for the servers to return information.

Bankruptcy Information

VCIS provides the following information for a bankruptcy case:

1. Case number
2. Debtor names
3. Social Security number and/or tax ID
4. Date the case was opened or reopened
5. Whether the case was filed voluntarily or involuntarily
6. Filing chapter
7. Business or consumer
8. Attorney name and phone number if one exists
9. Date converted and converted chapter
10. Trustee name if one exists
11. Judge name
12. Case status
13. First meeting of creditors dates and time, if it's set
14. Last date to file claim
15. Discharge date if one exists
16. Date the case was closed
17. Date case was reopened
18. Disposition
19. Assets status

ADVERSARY INFORMATION

VCIS provides the following information for adversary proceedings:

1. Case number
2. Case type
3. Case short title 1 and 2
4. Date filed
5. Attorney name and phone number for the plaintiff
6. Judge name
7. Case status
8. Date closed
9. Reopen date
10. Previous close date
11. Disposition

PHONE NUMBERS

In Anchorage ............................. 271-2658
Toll Free Nationwide...................888-878-3110

SAMPLE SESSION

The following is a sample session of VCIS. Susan public is interested in a particular bankruptcy case involving the debtor ABC Mutual Corp. Susan would like to know the debtor's attorney and the attorneys telephone number. She picks her telephone and dials the number of the court's Voice Case Information System [In Anchorage - 271-2658; Toll Free, nationwide 888-878-3110].

The phone is answered and a pre-recorded message similar to the following is played:

"Welcome to the United States Bankruptcy Court Voice Case Information System. Choose one of the following options. Press 1 for instructions on how to use this system, press 2 to search by case number, press 3 to search by participants name, press 4 to search by participant Social Security number or tax ID."

Susan is a first-time user, so she presses 1. She hears:

"For any option, enter data using the keys on your touch tone phone. For numbers, use the keys 0-9. For letters, use the key with the letter above it. Use 1 for the letters Q and Z. For a name search, enter the letters of the name followed by the #. Pressing * at any time will allow you to begin a new request."

Susan presses 3 and hears:

"Enter the parties last name, then first name and the initial if possible. For a company, enter the full name. Ignore spaces, periods and any non-letter characters. Press the # to end." She enters the name "ABC Mutual" by pressing the keys with the correct letters on them (222688825) then the # key to signal the end of her name input.

The computer responds with an indication that it is searching. After a brief pause, Susan hears the following (synthesized speech is in blue, pre-recorded speech is bold):
The debtor in case nine six one five two eight is ABC Mutual Corporation, tax ID one two three four five six seven eight nine. The case was filed voluntarily under chapter 11 on Aug. 20, 1996, as a business case. Assets are reported. The attorney for debtor ABC Mutual Corporation is Daniel Webster at seven zero three five five five one two three four. The trustee is James Smith. The judge is the Honorable John Marshall. The case status is awaiting 341 meeting. The first meeting of creditors will be held on Oct. 28, at 10:00 at Room 200, U.S. Courthouse. The last day to file a claim is Nov. 20, 1996. For more information about this case please contact the attorney, Daniel Webster at seven zero three five five five one two three four. To hear the party name spelled, press 1 or 2 for no.