Rare Bankruptcy Outcomes

Six statutory dispositions that almost never occur in practice. Together, just 1,119 cases out of 220,037 — 0.51% of the corpus — but each represents a meaningful doctrinal lever or policy outcome.

172

Hardship discharges (1328(b))

155

Discharges revoked (727(d))

334

Discharges denied (727(a))

265

Dismissed for abuse (707(b))

11 U.S.C. § 1328(b) Hardship Discharge — 172 cases

Granted to Ch.13 debtors who cannot complete plan payments through no fault of their own. Top districts: ksbk (89), mowbk (52), txsbk (11), flsbk (6). Almost exclusively Ch.13 (171 of 172) — one Ch.11 outlier.

Note the geography. Two Midwestern districts (Kansas, Missouri Western) account for 82% of all hardship discharges nationally. This is unusual concentration for a federal statutory remedy.

11 U.S.C. § 727(d) Discharge Revoked — 155 cases

Post-discharge revocation, generally for fraud or refusal to comply with court orders. 152 of 155 are Ch.7 cases. Top districts: ksbk (79), mowbk (26), flsbk (23), flmbk (10). Same Kansas/Missouri concentration.

11 U.S.C. § 727(a) Discharge Denied — 334 cases

Pre-discharge denial. Top districts: flsbk (136), mowbk (77), ksbk (28), ohnbk (16). 257 Ch.7, 76 Ch.13. Florida Southern alone is 41% of all denials.

11 U.S.C. § 707(b) Dismissed for Abuse — 265 cases

The means-test/totality-of-circumstances dismissal. Florida Southern: 205 of 265 cases (77%). Outside Florida, this disposition is functionally extinct. 239 Ch.7, 24 Ch.13.

Discharge Waived — 115 cases

Debtor waived right to discharge (typically by stipulation in adversary proceeding). Top districts: ohnbk (36), flsbk (34), txsbk (12), mowbk (12). Mostly Ch.7.

Dismissed for Want of Prosecution — 78 cases

Adversary-proceeding-only disposition. Top districts: flsbk, ksbk, mowbk, ohnbk (8 each). 100% AP cases.

Download the data (CC BY 4.0):
rare_grants_summary.csv rare_grants_by_district.csv rare_grants_by_year.csv rare_grants_by_chapter.csv

What jumps out

Florida Southern dominates § 707(b) — 205 of 265 abuse dismissals nationally (77%). The means-test apparatus is functionally a Florida Southern phenomenon in our corpus.
Kansas + Missouri Western dominate Ch.13 hardship discharges — 141 of 172 (82%). This is not what you would expect from a uniform federal remedy.
Discharge revocation is rare and Ch.7-concentrated — 98% of 155 revocations are Ch.7.
Want-of-prosecution dismissals exist only in adversary proceedings — not main cases.

Methodology

Source: 220,037 federal bankruptcy cases from PACER (2008-2026). Filtered for the six rare disposition codes listed. District codes follow PACER conventions. Per-statute classifications reflect the typical doctrinal mapping but actual case-level legal basis may vary.

Caveats. Disposition fields are administrative classifications, not legal holdings. A "Discharge Denied" entry does not specify which subsection of § 727(a) was the basis. Researchers seeking case-level legal reasoning should pull the underlying docket.

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