United States bankruptcy courts are courts created under Article I of the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...

. The current system of bankruptcy courts was created by the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

in 1978, effective April 1, 1984. United States bankruptcy courts function as units of the district courts and have

subject-matter jurisdiction Subject-matter jurisdiction (also called jurisdiction ''ratione materiae')'' is the authority of a court to hear cases of a particular type or cases relating to a specific subject matter. For instance, bankruptcy court only has the authority ...

over bankruptcy cases. The federal district courts have original and

exclusive jurisdiction Exclusive jurisdiction exists in civil procedure if one court has the power to adjudicate a case to the exclusion of all other courts. The opposite situation is concurrent jurisdiction (or non-exclusive jurisdiction) in which more than one cour ...

over all cases arising under the bankruptcy code, (see ), and bankruptcy cases cannot be filed in state court. Each of the 94 federal judicial districts handles bankruptcy matters. Technically, the United States district courts have subject matter jurisdiction over bankruptcy matters (see ). However, each such district court may, by order, "refer" bankruptcy matters to the bankruptcy court (see ). As a practical matter, most district courts have a standing "reference" order to that effect, so that all bankruptcy cases in that district are handled, at least initially, by the bankruptcy court. In unusual circumstances, a district court may in a particular case "withdraw the reference" (i.e., take the case or a particular proceeding within the case away from the bankruptcy court and decide the matter itself) under . The overwhelming majority of all proceedings in bankruptcy are held before a United States bankruptcy judge, whose decisions are subject to appeals to the district court. In some judicial circuits, appeals may be taken to a Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP). The bankruptcy judges in each judicial district in regular active service constitute a "unit" of the applicable

United States district court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district co ...

(see ). The bankruptcy judge is appointed for a renewable term of 14 years by the United States Court of Appeals for the circuit in which the applicable district is located (see ). The Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure (FRBP) govern procedure in the U.S. bankruptcy courts. Decisions of the bankruptcy courts are not collected and published in an official

reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

produced by the government. Instead, the ''de facto'' official source for opinions of the bankruptcy courts is ''West's Bankruptcy Reporter'', published privately by Thomson West. Bankruptcy courts appoint a trustee to represent the interests of the creditors and administer the cases. The U.S. TrusteeAbout the United States Trustee Program & Bankruptcy
(Justice.gov via archive.org) appoints Chapter 7 trustees for a renewable period of 1 year, Chapter 13 trustees are "standing trustees" who administrator cases in a specific geographic region.

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External links

* {{Law of the United States Bankruptcy court United States bankruptcy law # 1984 establishments in the United States Courts and tribunals established in 1984