Our office frequently receives calls from former clients, and occasionally from a non-client former bankruptcy debtor asking about copies of petitions, copies of discharge orders or other bankruptcy papers.

If these documents are readily available to our staff, we are happy to email or mail them to you at minimal or no charge.

If the old bankruptcy documents pre-date the electronic filing era or if we do not have ready access to them, we will refer you to the National Archive for Bankruptcy Paperwork.   Here is a link to the National Archive page that relates to Tennessee bankruptcy case filings.

As you will see, the National Archive can produce bankruptcy paperwork for cases less than 25 years old.  The government will charge you $70 for a copy of the entire case, or $25 if you need a selected document such as a Discharge Order.

We advise all of our clients to keep copies of all bankruptcy paperwork – since these documents are produced by our firm and by the court in Adobe pdf format, they are easily stored on your hard drive or on a CD.   We encourage you to make a backup copy as well.  There is a strong likelihood that you will need your discharge order in the months to come if you want to open a checking account, or if you decided to apply for a mortgage or car loan.