Local Rules and Court Forms

Introduction - Local Rules

The first part of this lesson covers the Court's Local Rules. The Local Rules serve to implement statutory requirements, establish uniform procedures, and generally aid the court by providing information and instruction on how proceedings are to be conducted.

Because each court develops its own Local Rules, you should refer to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court - Southern District of California's Local Rules whenever you need guidance on how to file a particular bankruptcy document in our court, including those filed using CM/ECF.

Introduction - Court Forms

The second part of this lesson covers Court Forms. A large part of filing with CM/ECF involves completing and electronically submitting bankruptcy court forms. Almost all of our court forms are numbered and are preceded by the letters CSD, which indicates California Southern District. For example, the Abstract of Judgment form is numbered CSD 3059.

The Court Forms page of the Court's Web site contains all of the forms used at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court - Southern District of California. The most recent versions of all court forms are there. On the Court Forms page, you can download copies of the court forms, including those that relate to the Local Rules.

This lesson will show you how to access and view the Local Rules. We'll also review some of the Local Rules that pertain to electronic filing using CM/ECF. This lesson also will show you how to obtain the court forms you may need to file electronically using CM/ECF. In the practice exercise, you will complete fillable PDF forms and save them to your computer.

Lesson Objectives At the end of this lesson, you should be able to: Access and view the Court's Local Rules Identify the administrative procedures that govern electronic filing in the Southern District of California Access the Court's Forms page and its corresponding forms Enter information into fillable court forms Describe the use of the electronic signature notation

The Local Rules and Court Forms lesson consists of five topics and a Practice Exercise:

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