Welcome to the Northern District of Florida Bankruptcy Bar Association's website. We hope you find this site informative and helpful, and we invite you to contact us with any questions you may have.
LATEST NDFL BANKRUPTCY NEWS:
The Pensacola Clerk's Office has moved! The Clerk’s Office in Pensacola has moved to the Winston E. Arnow Federal Building. For directions or other information regarding the move, contact the Clerk's office at 1-866-639-4615.
Look for New Screens when Filing Motions: Previously when filing a motion, you had to answer several questions and be presented with information that did not necessarily pertain to the document you were filing. The Clerk's office has condensed all the "stops" and miscellaneous information to eliminate a couple of unnecessary steps in the filing process. No matter what type of motion you are filing, you will be presented with a new screen on which you will indicate if any special conditions apply. If none are applicable, simply click "Next" to continue in the filing process. If you check one or more of the three hearing‐related boxes, upon clicking the "Next" button you will be provided contact information for the judges' chambers in order to request a hearing of the type required. Checking the negative notice option sets an automatic 21‐day response deadline on the motion and will also place negative notice language in the docket text. (**Remember that service is the responsibility of the filer. Motions filed on negative notice which are not permitted under Local Rule 2002‐2 will be processed according to our local policy regardless of the negative notice contained in your document.) The final option informs the court if the document is being served to a recipient not listed on the mailing matrix. This insures proper noticing by the court in the event a hearing is scheduled.
Form Plan Amended 2/1/2010: Item 4 of (4) of the Chapter 13 Form Plan (Local Form 21) posted on the Local & National Fillable Forms page of our website was amended February 1, 2010 to omit the specific amount payable to the attorney for fees related to the annual statement and the modified plan. The Plan now refers to the Standing Order for the allowable amounts. Please make note of the change if you have a copy of this document saved to your local computer.
ABJA Conference 2010. The Association of Bankruptcy Judicial Assistants (ABJA) is holding its Annual Educational Conference and Certified Bankruptcy Assistance (CBA) training on October 12-15, 2010, in New Orleans, Louisiana. This year's host hotel is The Ritz Carlton on the edge of the French Quarter (use booking code AYOAYOB), and registration information is posted on www.abja.org.
The ABJA offers a Certified Bankruptcy Assistant Program, which is designed to provide a general background in bankruptcy law and offer writing skills to assist professionals in work skill enhancement. The CBA Program will be held on Tuesday & Wednesday, October 12th and 13th, and consists of four parts: Ethics, Legal Research, Bankruptcy Code and Rules, and Grammar Usage and Writing. The certification exam is optional and is given at the end of the second day. Registration is approximately $399 and includes the seminar, examination fee, study guide, lunch on Wednesday, and light break refreshments. An application for certification, which can be found on the ABJA's website (www.abja.org) must be filled out and approved prior to registration being accepted.
The ABJA also provides training to judicial assistants, paralegals, legal assistants, and other non-lawyer support staff. Advanced training will be held on Thursday and Friday, October 14th & 15th. If you are interested in more information, contact Martie Kantor at martie_kantor@flnb.uscourts.gov or 850-521-5031.
New Suggestion Box/Survey for Administrative Office Support Team: At the urging of the Chair of the Additional Stakeholders Functional Requirements Group, the Administrative Office Support Team has developed and implemented two methods for soliciting suggestions and comments from outside users. These methods include a "Suggestion Box" which provides an opportunity to submit discrete information directly to the Support Team via electronic mail, as well as a survey, for which three versions are available, one each for district and bankruptcy courts, and one briefer version. All of this material is available on the Additional Stakeholders website at www.nceb.uscourts.gov/asfrg.
(For more information, check out the latest issue of the Advisor Newsletter)