Bankruptcy Search

Bankruptcy Search (QBS) finds out whether a person or company has filed for bankruptcy, using PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records), the federal judiciary’s own system, as the source. Servicers, lenders, credit unions, collectors, law firms, and loan buyers use it to stop collection, repossession, foreclosure, or suit when the automatic stay applies, and to keep the evidence that they checked.

Business use only

Bankruptcy Search is a business-to-business service for organizations with a permissible purpose. It is not available to consumers.

A search works in up to three layers, and you decide how far each search goes:

1. National search across all bankruptcy courts, through the PACER Case Locator. Every search starts here. It returns each case’s number, chapter, court, filing date, and disposition.
2. Case summary from the bankruptcy court that holds the case, adding dates such as discharge, dismissal, conversion, and plan confirmation, plus the debtor’s attorney and the trustee.
3. Dockets and documents: the case’s docket entries, and the filed documents they link to.

Every search can also produce an image of the PACER screen it relied on, whether a case was found or not, as evidence for your file.

What each search needs

Search type	You send	Notes
Full SSN	The 9-digit SSN, plus the last name (or company name)	The most precise search.
Last four + name	The last 4 digits of the SSN, plus the party’s name	Used when only the last four are on file.
Name only	A last name, or a company name	Can be limited by the party’s role in the case. Expect more possible matches to review.
Name and address (skip-trace)	Full name and full address, no SSN	Quandis looks up candidate SSNs and searches each one, up to a limit you set.

Key concepts

Concept	What it means
Order	One request. Each order gets a Quandis order ID and carries your own reference number (client ID), up to 50 characters.
Instant search	A national search for one person or company, with the results in the same response.
Batch order	Many people in one order. Results are delivered to your endpoint or picked up when they’re ready.
Case URL	The address of a case at its bankruptcy court, returned by the national search. Case summary, docket, and document requests start from it.
Thresholds	Limits that stop follow-on searching when a name returns too many people or cases, to control PACER charges.
Monitoring list	A named list of accounts that Quandis keeps watching for new bankruptcies and docket changes. Each account is identified by your own reference.
PACER image	A PDF of the PACER screen a search used, with the search criteria, for hits and no-hits alike.

Choose your view

Use the buttons under the page title. End user covers reading a result, the dates that matter, and working a bankruptcy in QBO; Power user covers search depth, thresholds, image settings, and monitoring lists; Developer covers the REST API.

For use cases by industry, see the Bankruptcy Search product page. Security and certifications are covered in Security.