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Codes, Rules & Forms

Bankruptcy Law is established by Congress and is generally found under Title 11 of the United States Code.

Rules governing the procedures to be followed are set out in the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedures which are supplemented by the Local Rules and Orders.


Official bankruptcy forms are approved by the Judicial Conference of the United States for use in all bankruptcy courts. Commonly used official bankruptcy forms include the petition, all schedules, and reaffirmation agreements.

Click here to obtain official bankruptcy forms on the U.S. Courts website.

In addition, there are local forms used in the Northern District of Iowa and Other Forms provided to the public by other agencies.

Information regarding all forms:

The Clerk's Office cannot provide assistance to fill out these forms.

To enhance usability, some of the forms can be filled in electronically. After completion, such "fillable forms" should be printed and filed by using the "print" button at the bottom of the form. If additional space is needed to complete a field in a fillable form, use a separate sheet of paper and include the case name, case number (if known), and a description or the number of the field being continued.

Warning for electronic filers: Certain versions of Adobe Acrobat and other PDF editing software allow the user to save a fillable form after data has been entered, and edit that information at a future date. If a form with saved data is filed electronically, (by someone with internet filing privileges in CM/ECF), the data can be easily extracted. To "flatten" the electronic file (i.e., to make the field data indistinguishable from the rest of the text in the form), "print" the form to PDF (using the print dialogue box), and file the resulting document.