PACER

PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) is the federal judiciary's online portal that provides public access to case filings, dockets, and documents from every United States bankruptcy, district, and appellate court. Maintained by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts at pacer.gov, it is the authoritative source for researching bankruptcy filings — and for mortgage note investors, it is one of the highest-return due diligence tools available.

How PACER Works

PACER is a fee-based system that requires a registered account. Document access costs approximately ten cents per page, capped at three dollars per document. Given the intelligence value of bankruptcy filings for note investment decisions, these costs are trivial relative to the capital at risk.

Key Features

Searching by Social Security number is strongly recommended when available. Name searches can return false positives, especially with common names, and the SSN eliminates any ambiguity about whether you have located the correct borrower.

Why Note Investors Use PACER

When a data tape or collateral file indicates that a borrower has a bankruptcy filing — active or prior — PACER is where the investor goes to understand the full picture. The court filings provide a level of borrower transparency that no credit report or skip trace can match, because the information is filed under penalty of perjury.

The PACER Research Process

The standard workflow for note investors evaluating a loan with bankruptcy history:

1. Locate the case — Search the PACER Case Locator by borrower SSN or name, cross-referencing the property address to confirm the correct case
2. Identify the chapter and status — Determine whether the case is Chapter 7 (liquidation) or Chapter 13 (reorganization), and whether it is active, discharged, or dismissed
3. Pull the voluntary petition — The first or second filing in most cases, containing the borrower's complete financial snapshot
4. Read Schedule D (Secured Claims) — Lists every secured creditor, the property securing each claim, the borrower's stated property value, and the balance owed
5. Review borrower intentions — The petition states whether the borrower intends to retain the property, surrender it, or propose a lien strip
6. Check for motions for relief from stay — Search the docket for motions for relief filed by other creditors, especially senior lien holders pursuing foreclosure

What Schedule D Reveals

Schedule D is the single most valuable document for note investors on PACER. From it, you extract:

• The borrower's stated property value — compare this to your own valuation; borrowers frequently understate values to facilitate lien strips
• All liens secured to the property — confirms your lien position and reveals liens not disclosed on the data tape
• Equity coverage for your position — in a Chapter 13 case, determines whether the borrower can strip your junior lien

Discharged vs. Dismissed: Reading the Outcome

The case outcome fundamentally changes the investment profile of the loan:

Approximately two-thirds of Chapter 13 plans are dismissed before completion. A dismissed case restores your lien to its original position — making the dismissal rate a meaningful factor in pricing loans with active Chapter 13 filings.

PACER for Portfolio Monitoring

Beyond pre-acquisition due diligence, PACER serves as a portfolio monitoring tool. Investors periodically search PACER for new bankruptcy filings by borrowers in their existing portfolio. When a borrower files for bankruptcy after the note has been purchased, the automatic stay halts all collection and foreclosure activity, and the investor must file a proof of claim to preserve their position.

For larger portfolios, manual PACER searches become impractical. Third-party bankruptcy monitoring services automate this process by continuously scanning federal court filings against a list of borrower SSNs and sending alerts when a match is found.

Cost and Access

The quarterly fee waiver makes PACER effectively free for investors who research only a handful of cases per quarter. For active investors evaluating multiple tapes, the costs remain minimal relative to the value of the intelligence provided.