Updated Sep 23, 2026 · 174 new this week

Business bankruptcy filings across the U.S.

Chapter 11, Subchapter V, Chapter 7 and Chapter 15 petitions filed by companies in the federal bankruptcy courts — lifted from the courts' public docket feeds, with consumer cases left out.

Chapter 11
423
lead cases incl. Subchapter V
Past 7 days
174
business petitions
On file
788
1,001 dockets incl. affiliates
Busiest venue
New York
115 lead cases
Chapter mix

Reorganize or liquidate?

Week-by-week split of business petitions between Chapter 11, its small-business Subchapter V track, Chapter 7 and cross-border Chapter 15.

Petitions per week, by chapter

Lead cases; joint affiliates counted once
Chapter 11 402Subchapter V 21Chapter 7 352Chapter 15 3Chapter 12 10
wk of Aug 24, 2026
144
wk of Aug 31, 2026
197
wk of Sep 7, 2026
169
wk of Sep 14, 2026
181
wk of Sep 21, 2026
97

Reorganizations outnumber liquidations 1.2 to 1 across the window (423 Chapter 11 vs. 352 Chapter 7 lead cases). Subchapter V elections flagged on the docket so far: 21 — the flag appears once the court feed shows a Subchapter V entry, so recent weeks fill in over time.

Share of the window

All lead cases on file

Showing the 400 most recent lead cases. State pages and chapter pages hold the complete lists.

Debtor Chapter State Case no. Court Filed Link

A docket watch for business bankruptcies

Every U.S. bankruptcy starts with a petition filed in one of the federal bankruptcy courts. The moment it is docketed, the automatic stay freezes lawsuits and collection, and the case number becomes the reference for every motion, claim and order that follows. This site lifts the company petitions out of the daily flood of consumer cases and lines them up by chapter, state and petition date.

The chapters you will see

Chapter 11 — reorganization, debtor-in-possession keeps operating · Subchapter V — streamlined Chapter 11 for small businesses · Chapter 7 — liquidation by a trustee · Chapter 15 — recognition of a foreign insolvency case · Chapter 12 — family farms and fisheries · Chapter 9 — municipalities.

Venue is not headquarters

Large debtors pick their court. A retailer based in Ohio may file in Houston or Newark because an affiliate is organized there, so the state column tells you where the case is pending — not necessarily where the company does business.

Jump to a slice of the docket

Questions readers ask

Where do these filings come from? +
Case-opening entries published on the public RSS feeds of the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts (PACER/CM-ECF), cross-checked with CourtListener, the free legal-research archive run by the Free Law Project. Public-company flags come from SEC EDGAR 8-K reports under Item 1.03.
Are personal bankruptcies included? +
No. Individual and joint consumer cases are dropped, as are all Chapter 13 cases. A debtor appears only when its name identifies a legal entity such as an LLC, corporation or partnership.
How often is the docket refreshed? +
The court feeds are read at least once a day and CourtListener is re-queried for the previous few days, so late entries are picked up on the next run. Petition dates follow the court's own docket.
Why do some companies show affiliates? +
Corporate groups often file dozens of related cases on the same day and ask the court to administer them jointly. We show one lead case — the lowest case number — and list the affiliated debtors on its page.
What is the difference between Chapter 11 and Subchapter V? +
Both are reorganizations. Subchapter V is a cheaper, faster version for small businesses under the statutory debt limit: no creditors' committee, a standing trustee, and a plan that only the debtor can propose.
Is this legal advice? +
No. This is an independent summary of public court records. Always rely on the official docket and consult a bankruptcy attorney before acting on a case.
Venue map

Where petitions are pending

One pin per lead case, placed inside the state whose bankruptcy court holds the docket. Pick a state chip to zoom in; the pins respect the table filters.

Pins are state-level approximations, not addresses · Tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors, © CARTO · Case data: U.S. Bankruptcy Courts via PACER RSS and CourtListener