Synthesis of 8 prior empirical analyses into per-district fingerprints. Each federal bankruptcy district has a distinctive outcome profile — discharge rate, dismissal rate, joint-filing rate, reopening rate, recidivism rate — that varies substantially across districts. The reference table for inter-district comparison.
Top 30 districts by case volume in the dataset. Click column headers to sort (if your browser supports it).
| District | Total cases | Ch.7 | Ch.13 | Ch.11 | AP | Ch.7 disch% | Ch.13 disch% | Ch.7 joint% | Ch.13 joint% | Reopen% | Multifiler% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| flsbk | 43,932 | 20,918 | 19,270 | 1,083 | 2,648 | 88.59% | 49.01% | 18.56% | 26.33% | 3.44% | 7.71% |
| mowbk | 42,263 | 20,441 | 20,900 | 172 | 734 | 95.16% | 39.42% | 22.79% | 23.6% | 4.08% | 14.64% |
| ksbk | 41,650 | 18,673 | 22,176 | 238 | 522 | 92.49% | 53.7% | 20.67% | 24.29% | 1.68% | 16.79% |
| txsbk | 30,412 | 11,510 | 18,641 | 250 | 10 | 92.04% | 33.47% | 0.02% | 0.02% | 1.24% | 13.2% |
| ilnbk | 10,161 | 6,696 | 3,084 | 290 | 91 | 48.67% | 29.73% | 11.59% | 20.72% | 0.64% | 4.01% |
| cacbk | 5,938 | 5,129 | 744 | 10 | 55 | 97.25% | 35.08% | 21.74% | 24.19% | 1.25% | 4.95% |
| flmbk | 5,699 | 3,251 | 2,136 | 158 | 152 | 87.54% | 28.37% | 24.33% | 33.43% | 2.16% | 5.02% |
| moebk | 4,491 | 1,691 | 2,739 | 32 | 11 | 31.82% | 6.83% | 14.73% | 7.12% | 0.67% | 4.54% |
| ohnbk | 4,214 | 3,250 | 273 | 19 | 672 | 94.4% | 49.45% | 24.34% | 34.07% | 1.85% | 4.58% |
| insbk | 2,094 | 489 | 1,415 | 183 | 6 | 51.33% | 27.99% | 22.29% | 31.59% | 1.58% | 2.96% |
| tnwbk | 1,980 | 568 | 1,250 | 121 | 41 | 75.18% | 10.96% | 10.04% | 5.2% | 1.67% | 13.54% |
| ganbk | 1,708 | 938 | 197 | 566 | 5 | 33.9% | 16.75% | 11.3% | 8.12% | 1.0% | 5.09% |
| paebk | 1,674 | 410 | 1,098 | 158 | 6 | 0.49% | 0.09% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 8.24% |
| njbk | 1,647 | 526 | 1,054 | 53 | 14 | 82.7% | 12.05% | 10.27% | 18.41% | 2.19% | 4.98% |
| wiebk | 1,520 | 903 | 549 | 2 | 66 | 97.45% | 39.16% | 28.9% | 40.98% | 2.3% | 3.09% |
| innbk | 1,486 | 303 | 1,118 | 64 | 1 | 32.01% | 25.4% | 12.87% | 31.13% | 1.01% | 3.84% |
| mabk | 1,441 | 1,290 | 66 | 19 | 65 | 91.71% | 36.36% | 27.13% | 22.73% | 4.93% | 0.83% |
| vaebk | 1,339 | 512 | 546 | 204 | 74 | 0.59% | 10.26% | 0.2% | 4.21% | 0.67% | 6.95% |
| miebk | 1,317 | 611 | 483 | 208 | 12 | 4.09% | 11.8% | 1.15% | 5.59% | 0.84% | 3.87% |
| kyebk | 1,203 | 289 | 790 | 78 | 41 | 31.49% | 30.76% | 14.19% | 34.68% | 2.0% | 3.99% |
| txnbk | 1,183 | 320 | 291 | 567 | 4 | 1.25% | 0.34% | 0.94% | 0.34% | 0.17% | 2.7% |
| nyebk | 1,087 | 1,014 | 61 | 1 | 11 | 96.65% | 24.59% | 22.78% | 32.79% | 1.38% | 3.86% |
| almbk | 1,039 | 170 | 850 | 18 | 1 | 4.12% | 0.47% | 1.18% | 0.24% | 0.0% | 6.83% |
| mdbk | 902 | 420 | 139 | 283 | 59 | 8.81% | 1.44% | 2.62% | 0.0% | 1.11% | 5.1% |
| alnbk | 846 | 308 | 415 | 116 | 3 | 1.62% | 0.72% | 0.97% | 1.69% | 0.47% | 5.79% |
| caebk | 781 | 625 | 147 | 3 | 6 | 94.88% | 47.62% | 38.4% | 57.14% | 3.2% | 8.19% |
| scbk | 774 | 301 | 334 | 137 | 0 | 0.33% | 0.3% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 5.17% |
| ncebk | 671 | 187 | 220 | 255 | 2 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 3.87% |
| arwbk | 632 | 228 | 305 | 51 | 43 | 60.53% | 36.07% | 32.02% | 27.21% | 0.95% | 4.75% |
| kywbk | 619 | 29 | 584 | 2 | 3 | 89.66% | 34.25% | 17.24% | 37.16% | 2.42% | 0.32% |
Kansas (ksbk), Missouri Western (mowbk), Florida Southern (flsbk) all have Ch.13 share above 45%, joint filing rates around 22%, and recidivism rates around 13-17%. Their Ch.7 discharge rates cluster around 70-90% but Ch.13 discharge varies more (KSBK higher, FLSBK lower).
Central California (cacbk) and Massachusetts (mabk) are heavily Ch.7 (86%+ of cases) with high discharge rates (88-94%). Their Ch.13 volumes are low and dismissal patterns are modest. Massachusetts notably has the highest reopening rate (4.93%) of major districts — suggests an active post-discharge correction culture.
Texas Southern (txsbk) has 34.6% overall dismissal rate — substantially above the ~25% mean. Tennessee Western (tnwbk) at 30.1% similar. These districts deliver fewer discharges per filing, often due to plan-payment-failure patterns in their heavy-Ch.13 caseload.
Illinois Northern (ilnbk) shows 41% discharge / 14% dismissal — a substantial fraction of cases neither discharged nor dismissed in the available data, which typically means high pending-or-unknown disposition. Probable cause: incomplete outcome data in the dataset rather than actual judicial outcomes.
Several structural factors:
The dataset is over-represented in heavier-monitored districts (KSBK, MOWBK, FLSBK, TXSBK). Within-district rates are sampling-bias resistant; absolute case counts reflect data-collection focus. Districts with under 100 cases in the sample are excluded from the profile table because small samples produce unstable rates.
Some districts show very low discharge rates (e.g., paebk at 0.2%, vaebk at 4.4%). These are probably data-completeness issues — cases pulled without outcome fields populated — rather than actual zero-discharge districts. Future versions of the dataset should populate outcome fields more consistently across districts.
district_profiles.csv — full per-district profile table (CC BY 4.0).
Open Bankruptcy Project (2026). Per-District Bankruptcy Outcome Profiles Dataset, v0.1. 501(c)(3) public charity (EIN 41-5159631). URL: https://viz.openbankruptcyproject.org/district-profiles/ License: CC BY 4.0