Bankruptcy search for law firms without manual PACER lookups

Most law firms still treat bankruptcy search like a manual chore. Someone logs into PACER, searches case by case, saves the screen, and moves on to the next file. It works, but it spends billable hours on lookups, and it depends on someone remembering to run the search before the next step in the case.

With Quandis Bankruptcy Search, those searches are triggered directly by your own system, with no user intervention. The outcome is the same: you know whether a party has filed. The manual effort disappears, and fewer filings slip through the cracks.

The cost of the manual approach

Bankruptcy checks matter at several points in a firm’s work: before filing a foreclosure, a collection suit, or an eviction, and again while a matter is active. When the check is manual:

• Time goes to lookups instead of legal work. Searching, refreshing, and saving PACER screens one party at a time is repetitive, and at volume it adds up.
• Searches happen when someone remembers. A check that depends on a person can be skipped under deadline pressure, or run on the wrong date.
• Evidence is uneven. Whether a screenshot was saved, how it was named, and where it was filed vary from person to person.

None of these are problems of skill. They are problems of a process that relies on a person for a step a system can do.

How an automated search works

Bankruptcy Search exposes a real-time search over a REST API. Your case management or servicing system sends the party’s information at the point a decision is made, and the results come back in the response, ready to be recorded on the matter.

• Instant results returned to your workflow. Search one person or company in real time, by full SSN with last name, last four digits with the party’s name, or company name and EIN. Results include case number, chapter, court, filing date, and disposition.
• Minimal technical setup. The API uses JSON over HTTPS, authenticated with an API key, so connecting an existing system is a modest integration rather than a project.
• Automated background execution. Because your system triggers the search, it runs at the right step every time, without anyone logging in. Larger sets of parties can be submitted as a batch, with results delivered to your endpoint or picked up when ready.

When you need more than a hit or no-hit, a search can also retrieve the court’s case summary, docket entries, and filed documents, and you control when those follow-on searches run, for example only for open cases.

Evidence and ongoing coverage

Every search can return a PDF of the PACER screen it relied on, with the search criteria shown, whether or not a case was found. Files can carry your reference number in the name, be grouped by person or order, and have SSNs redacted before they reach your system.

A clean search today does not cover a filing next month. For matters that stay open, accounts can be placed under monitoring, and Bankruptcy Search reports new filings and docket changes so the right person sees them.

Bankruptcy Search is a business-to-business service for organizations with a permissible purpose. It is not available to consumers. How a filing affects a given matter depends on the facts and the court, so confirm your obligations with counsel.

Same outcome, zero manual effort

If your team still searches PACER by hand, see how real-time, batch, and monitoring searches fit legal workflows on the Bankruptcy Search product page, or review the request and response details in the Bankruptcy Search developer guide.