Bankruptcy case number format, decoded.

Three published styles, one decoder

Bankruptcy courts are part of the federal district courts, but each court writes its case number its own way. This page decodes the three styles we could read in full from official court sources. Pick the style that matches the court the number came from, then decode.

Adversary proceedings

A bankruptcy case can spawn separate lawsuits inside it, called adversary proceedings. In the Central District of California they carry their own number with ap in the case type slot, for example 2:19-ap-9876-VZ, and on filings the adversary number appears immediately below the main case number and chapter. The decoder reads ap as an adversary proceeding in the colon style.

The chapter

The chapter tells you what kind of bankruptcy it is. The uscourts.gov Bankruptcy Basics page names Chapter 7 (liquidation), 9 (municipality bankruptcy), 11 (reorganization), 12 (family farmer or family fisherman bankruptcy), 13 (individual debt adjustment) and 15 (ancillary and other cross-border cases). The Southern District of California notes that 11 and 13 are other common chapters besides 7. Where the number does not carry the chapter, the case caption or docket does.

Worked example (hypothetical)

Take 22-32054-pcm12 in the Oregon style: filed in 2022, location digit 3 so Portland, designation 2054, judge pcm and chapter 12, a family farmer or family fisherman case. Read the same digits as year-sequence-initials-chapter and they parse too, but you would call 32054 a plain sequence number and miss that its first digit points to Portland. The two styles cannot be told apart from the digits alone, which is why the decoder asks which one to use instead of guessing the district.

Reading a number step by step

First find the court that issued it, because the court decides the style. Second, take the two digits that stand for the year; in every style above they come right after the office digit or at the very start. Third, find the case type if the style has one (bk or ap in the colon style) or the judge letters, which are the only letters in the other two styles. Fourth, check whether digits follow the judge letters: in the Southern District of California and Oregon styles those are the chapter. Finally, if the chapter is not in the number, look at the caption of the filing or the docket, where the court shows it. Each step is something the cited courts say in their own words; the decoder just applies them in order and names any piece it cannot place.

Edge cases and common mistakes

• Reading a trailing 7 as part of the sequence. In year-sequence-initials-chapter numbers the digits after the letters are the chapter.
• Assuming every bankruptcy number has a chapter. The colon style does not.
• Assuming the location digit is universal. The Central District's divisions and Oregon's location digits are different schemes. The Oregon page describes digits 3 to 8 only; the decoder flags others.
• Forgetting the judge initials. In the Central District the case number includes the judge's initials; in the other two styles the letters are the judge too.

Who this is for

Creditors, paralegals, journalists and researchers who have a bankruptcy case number from a notice or filing and want to read it before searching PACER.

What this does not cover

Only the three styles above are decoded. Other districts use their own formats and we did not read them, so a number from another court may not parse or may be misread if forced into the wrong style. The tool does not look up cases, debtors, creditors, claims or deadlines; it does not say whether a case is open; and it does not cover bankruptcy outside the United States. For civil and criminal district court numbers use the federal case number decoder, and for the three-digit civil cover sheet codes see the nature of suit code list.

FAQ

What is the format of a bankruptcy case number?

There is no single national format. The Central District of California writes office:year-bk-sequence-judge, as in 2:19-bk-54321-VZ. The Southern District of California writes year-sequence-initials-chapter, as in 16-90131-LT7. The District of Oregon writes year, a location digit plus four digits, judge initials and chapter, as in 22-32054-pcm12.

What does bk mean in a case number?

bk marks a bankruptcy case in the courts that use the colon style. The same court uses ap for an adversary proceeding, a lawsuit filed inside a bankruptcy case, as in 2:19-ap-9876-VZ.

Is the bankruptcy chapter part of the case number?

Only in some districts. The Southern District of California and the District of Oregon put the chapter at the end of the number. The Central District of California does not; it shows the chapter number separately, immediately below the case number.

What do the bankruptcy chapters mean?

The uscourts.gov Bankruptcy Basics page titles them: Chapter 7 liquidation, Chapter 9 municipality bankruptcy, Chapter 11 reorganization, Chapter 12 family farmer or family fisherman bankruptcy, Chapter 13 individual debt adjustment, and Chapter 15 ancillary and other cross-border cases.

What do the letters in a bankruptcy case number mean?

They are the initials of the judge assigned. In 2:19-bk-54321-VZ the court's own example identifies VZ as the assigned bankruptcy judge, and in 16-90131-LT7 the LT is the judge and the 7 is the chapter.

What does the first digit in 2:19-bk-54321 mean?

It is the divisional office. In the Central District of California 2 is Los Angeles, 1 is the San Fernando Valley, 6 is Riverside, 8 is Santa Ana and 9 is Santa Barbara. In another district the same digit can mean another place.

Does the number tell me who filed or how the case ended?

No. The number holds the office or location, year, type, sequence, judge and sometimes the chapter. It says nothing about the debtor, the outcome or the case status. Those are on the docket.

How do I look up a bankruptcy case?

Use PACER, which lets registered users search a specific federal court or a nationwide index. This page decodes the number only and never looks up a case.

Sources

Retrieved 2026-10-20. Each link was opened and the statement next to it was checked against the text.

• U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California: The Central Guide, Supplement 9004-1 (August 2022)
• U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of California: case number format
• U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Oregon: case number format
• U.S. Courts: Bankruptcy Basics
• PACER: Public Access to Court Electronic Records