Noticing Information

  1. Local Court Noticing Guidelines: .

    • Notice of Appearance. A Notice of Appearance does not need to be filed by an attorney appearing on behalf of a client; the act of using an ECF account to docket a pleading creates the attorney/party association within ECF and ensures that the attorney will receive electronic notice of all activity in that case. LBR 5005-1(b)(2). NOTE: the correct role type when docketing a Notice of Appearance is "Interested Party" and does not require that the attorney enter mailing information or an address.

    • Request for Special Notice. Requests for special notice are only appropriate in situations defined under FRBP 2002(i) (for example, a case under chapter 7 or 11 where a committee has been appointed and the court has limited notice). When appropriate, the Request for Special Notice is made by docketing Local Bankruptcy Form 11. Attorneys who are ECF filers and have docketed anything to a case will receive electronic notice of all filings in that case without the need to request special notice.

    • Courtesy Notice.  Attorneys with a full CM/ECF account in this district may sign up to receive courtesy notification of the electronic filing of documents.  By docketing a request for Courtesy Notification of Electronic Filing (NEF) to a case, the ECF filer will receive an NEF of all docket activity in that case without  appearing in the case or filing a pleading.

    • Out of State Attorneys.  Attorneys who are not admitted to practice in the Western District of Washington are not eligible for a full attorney account in ECF and do not have access to the noticing options listed above. Your options for following a case are the same as those for other interested parties. See http://www.wawb.uscourts.gov/for-creditors

  2. Change of Address: ECF participants must maintain current contact information, including a primary email address, in PACER.  Secondary email addresses are maintained in ECF and can be updated through Utilities>Maintain User Account. For an electronic filer, written change of contact information does not need to be placed on the docket.  LBR 5005-1(a)(3).

  3. Register of Governmental Mailing Addresses:   Pursuant to Fed.R.Bankr. P. 5003(e),  the court maintains a Register of Mailing Addresses of Federal and State Governmental Units and Certain Taxing Authorities.

  4. Creditor Preferred Mailing Address for Noticing:  Creditors have the option  to specify a preferred mailing address to be used by all the bankruptcy courts or by particular bankruptcy courts for providing notices. Visit the National Creditor Registration Service (NCRS) website.

  5. Electronic Bankruptcy Noticing (EBN): The U.S. Bankruptcy Courts offer the bankruptcy community Electronic Bankruptcy Noticing (EBN). EBN is a FREE service that allows court notices to be transmitted electronically, delivering them faster and more conveniently. Note that entities receiving 25 or more bankruptcy paper notices in a single calendar month are required to use EBN

  6. Approved Bankruptcy Notice Providers.  A bankruptcy notice provider is an entity approved by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to give notice to creditors under Rule 2002(g)(4).  There is a list of approved notice providers.

  7. Responsibility for Mailing Matrix. Debtors' counsel is responsible for the accuracy of the mailing matrix. Amendments to the creditor list and balance of schedules are to be filed on the court docket, accompanied by a pdf of the additional creditors in matrix format, and a creditor upload into ECF. The debtor is required to give notice of the amendment, and provide newly added creditors with the 341 notice containing the complete social security number or individual taxpayer identification number of the debtor, even if the 341 meeting has already occurred. See FRBP 1009(a); LBR 1009-1(c).  

  8. Removal of creditors: A creditor may file a written request to be removed from the mailing matrix. In a large case, a debtor may desire to remove creditors from the mailing matrix if incorrect creditor addresses result in a volume of returned mail. If removing creditors from the matrix, the notice provisions of FRBP 1009 (a) apply.