Use bankruptcy and legal news sources to find developments in bankruptcy law and contentious cases that might be expanded into a comment. For more information on checking whether your topic has been preempted, see the Preemption Checks page of this guide.
Bankruptcy News
Bloomberg Law: The Bankruptcy Practice Center includes Bankruptcy Law News and Analysis and recent case filings and orders. US Law Week on Bloomberg Law has news stories on significant cases, including from the US Supreme Court, from all areas of law. Its Supreme Court Today Tracker can be used to find the status of cases and to filter cases by topic, including bankruptcy.
Westlaw Bankruptcy Resources include Westlaw's bankruptcy analysis publications, commentaries, and briefings.
Practical Law on Westlaw: Updates to Bankruptcy Trackers each month include new cases by subtopic. Regular updates include trackers for Chapter 15, Circuit cases, splits of authority, mass tort cases, and cases by industry.
Lexis Bankruptcy Practice resources: Bankruptcy news sources on Lexis include Law360 Bankruptcy Law News, Troubled Company Reporter, and related business news from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Law 360 (headlines by topic on the web version; or search on Lexis). Find bankruptcy news stories with associated documents like petitions and orders.
Bankruptcy Newsletters
Bloomberg Bankruptcy Law News includes bankruptcy news stories, Practitioner Insights, and featured topics that include filings of note, creditor claims, legislation, and international insolvency. Choose Subscribe to Newsletter to get bankruptcy news by email.
American Bankruptcy Institute: Bankruptcy news with headlines and blogs. Newsletters available to members on the site and through email alerts include Rochelle's Daily Wire with bankruptcy circuit split and appellate court news.
Bankruptcy Blogs
Find developments and analysis on bankruptcy from professors and practitioners. But note that many law firm sites are primarily promotional.
Justia BlawgSearch: Bankruptcy blog headlines and index
Harvard Law School Bankruptcy Roundtable: Weekly posts on current bankruptcy issues
Credit Slips: Academic blog on bankruptcy, consumer issues, and financial institutions
Weil Restructuring News: Developments on business bankruptcy and restructuring
National Consumer Bankruptcy Rights Center Blog
Georgia Bankruptcy Blog: Occasional posts on bankruptcy, including local stories
Business, Legal, and General News
Look for news stories on bankruptcy and related subjects. For possible topics, look for opinion pieces, analysis, and commentary, as well as notable cases.
New York Times , Wall Street Journal , and Atlanta Journal-Constitution Digital Access: Instructions for access to the university's subscriptions
Business Source Complete: Database of full-text business and scholarly journals in marketing, accounting, finance, and economics. Includes company profiles, industry profiles, and market research reports.
MarketWatch: Stock market, financial and business news
You might need to start by learning a little about bankruptcy law. These sources will also be useful as background sources for your comment and as study aids for the bankruptcy class.
Bankruptcy Basics (introductory information on bankruptcy from the US Courts)
Bankruptcy Basics: A Primer (CRS Report R45137)
CRS Reports prepared for Congress address federal legislation, bills, and issues that Congress is investigating or might address in legislation. Use Congress.gov or EveryCRSReport.com to search for CRS Reports on bankruptcy, finance, or economic policy.
Collier on Bankruptcy and other Collier publications (Lexis). Collier on Bankruptcy is also available in the Lexis Digital Library.
Norton Bankruptcy Law & Practice (Westlaw), including a Dictionary of Bankruptcy Terms, and other Westlaw Bankruptcy Resources
Practical Law on Westlaw: Bankruptcy & Restructuring: Practice notes, guides, and updates on bankruptcy topics
Bloomberg Bankruptcy Practice Center includes practical guidance, news, analysis, and sample documents.
Study aids on bankruptcy law are available on reserve at the Service Desk and online in the West Academic Study Aids Collection:
The Elements of Bankruptcy
by
Bankruptcy and Debtor Creditor: Examples & Explanations
by
Bankruptcy in a Nutshell
by
Questions and Answers
by
As you work on your spading assignments, you might encounter unfamiliar citations, and you will want to properly cite materials in your own work. The latest edition of the Bluebook is the 22nd edition. Consult the Citation Assistance page of this guide for tips.
You will want to find digitized materials as PDF images (or other image formats) of the original or official documents when you can, so you can be sure that the text and page citation of the original matches the citation you are checking, and so you can save and share the document. Not every source you are checking will be available online, and those that are may not be available in image formats. In addition to the resources provided in the Spading page of this guide, some additional resources particular to the Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal include:
West’s Bankruptcy Reporter and other federal and state reporters on Westlaw
GovInfo For legislative history and federal government documents, including Public Laws and many Federal District and Bankruptcy Court opinions (as court documents)
Hein Online History of Bankruptcy has volumes of compiled legislative history documents as scanned images of the originals
Hein Online also has scanned PDF images in its Law Journal Library, US Code, US Congressional Documents, US Statutes at Large libraries, and CFR and Federal Register libraries.
Your own research and your spading assignments may require that you find dockets, orders, and other court documents. In addition to the resources provided in the general Dockets and Court Documents page, some additional resources particular to the Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal include:
Bloomberg Law: Searchable federal dockets and court documents from PACER. You can search dockets by keyword, court, party, judge, docket number or date, or for bankruptcy courts, by chapter or nature of suit. If the document is listed for "view," it is already available. If it is listed as "request," Bloomberg will retrieve the document for you. For large dockets, you can search within the docket for specific documents. Note that Bloomberg Law now has caps on federal docket usage by academic accounts.
Westlaw Bankruptcy Resources include Trial Court Documents and Briefs. Fields to search in Advanced Search include parties, attorney, docket number, and court, as well as full text.
CourtLink on Lexis and Lexis Briefs, Pleadings, and Motions include select court documents from bankruptcy courts
Legal newsletter articles on cases in Law360 and Bloomberg Law attach dockets, orders, and other court documents related to the article.
Bankruptcy and District court websites may include documents for major and newsworthy cases.
Case administration firms provide reorganization plans and other documents for large Chapter 11 cases on their websites, frequently with headings for major documents, key dates, and key parties. Major sites for finding case documents include Verita, Epiq, Kroll, Stretto, and BMC Group.
Try an advanced Google search by docket number or debtor name, limiting to PDF file type, to search for dockets or documents on court websites, case management sites, and with news stories. A simple Google search with the company name and "reorganization plan" or "chapter 11 petition" will frequently work too.
Use legal research guides to find resources for your project. Emory Law Library's research guides include links to bankruptcy-related databases and other resources. You might also find helpful resources in Woodruff Library's research guides.
Other research guides that you might find helpful include:
Georgetown Law: Bankruptcy Law Research Guide
Duke Law: Bankruptcy Law
Boston College Law Library: Bankruptcy Law Research
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Questions? Email Anna Sturgill, Law Librarian for Archives and Assessment Services
