What the Best Case client questionnaire collects and what to do with it
Short answer
The Best Case client questionnaire is a 34-page, seven-section paper form published by Best Case Solutions and still handed out by consumer bankruptcy firms nationwide. Its sections are Basic Information, Property, Debts, Unexpired Leases and Contracts, Current Income, Current Expenses, and Statement of Financial Affairs. Best Case offers no import path for the completed paper form, so firms retype it. Casewell reads the completed packet and exports a .BCB file for Best Case.
A written client questionnaire is documented best practice in consumer bankruptcy. The American College of Bankruptcy and NCLC best-practices guidance states that debtor information “should be elicited from the debtor through use of detailed questions… using a written questionnaire that should be reviewed carefully in an interview,” and adds that “it is generally good practice to have the debtor sign any completed questionnaire.” Firms running paper intake are following the guidance rather than lagging behind it.
The form most of them run is Best Case’s own. A 34-page questionnaire marked “Client Questionnaire, Copyright © 1996-2008 Best Case Solutions” is still posted on law-firm websites across the country, handed to clients at the consult and returned filled in by hand. Best Case ships the paper form and provides no way to read it back in.
What is the Best Case client questionnaire?
The Best Case client questionnaire is the intake packet published by Best Case Solutions, the company now owned by Stretto, to collect everything a consumer bankruptcy petition needs from the debtor. It runs 34 pages across seven sections, includes 35 numbered categories of personal property, repeated creditor blocks, digit boxes for Social Security numbers, and “Office Use Only” columns where staff mark exemptions on the same sheet the client wrote on.
Its structure mirrors the schedules rather than the conversation, which is why it is long. The copyright range predates the 2015 renumbering of the official forms, so a section titled for the old Schedule A or Form 7 maps onto today’s Official Forms 106A/B through 106J, 107 and 122A-1.
What sections does it contain?
The Best Case client questionnaire contains seven sections: Basic Information, Property, Debts, Unexpired Leases and Contracts, Current Income, Current Expenses, and Statement of Financial Affairs. Each maps onto a specific part of the filed petition, which is what makes the packet long and what makes retyping it expensive. The Debts and Property sections carry the most fields and produce the most rework when a value is transcribed wrong.
| Section | What it collects | Where it lands in the petition |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Information | Debtor and joint debtor identity, addresses, prior addresses, marital status, dependents, prior filings, Social Security digit boxes | Voluntary petition (Form 101) and the statement of Social Security number (Form 121) |
| Property | Real property, then 35 numbered personal-property categories from cash on hand to animals, with “Office Use Only / Exemptions?” columns | Schedule A/B (Form 106A/B) and the exemption claims on Schedule C |
| Debts | Repeated creditor blocks for secured, priority and unsecured claims, with balances, account numbers and collateral | Schedules D and E/F, plus the creditor matrix the court notices from |
| Unexpired Leases and Contracts | Leases and executory contracts still running at filing, including vehicle leases and residential tenancies | Schedule G, and the statement of intention where a lease is assumed |
| Current Income | Employer, occupation, pay frequency, gross pay, deductions, other household income and income by year | Schedule I and the means test calculation on Form 122A-1 |
| Current Expenses | Housing, utilities, food, transport, insurance, medical, support obligations and installment payments | Schedule J |
| Statement of Financial Affairs | Payments to creditors and insiders, transfers, lawsuits, repossessions, closed accounts, gifts, losses and prior business activity | The Statement of Financial Affairs (Form 107) |
How long does it take a client to complete?
No published measurement exists, and any figure quoted without a methodology should be treated as invented. What firms can observe is that a 34-page questionnaire is usually completed across several sittings and often comes back with gaps, because the client has to find account numbers and pay records before answering. One firm’s cover letter on this exact packet tells clients that once it is returned, “it typically takes 7-10 business days to have your case ready for your signatures.”
That interval is the number worth tracking, because it is the part of the timeline the firm controls. It covers the review for gaps, the follow-up calls, and the transcription of every field into Best Case.
What happens to it after the client returns it?
A paralegal reads the whole packet to find blanks and contradictions, calls the client about the gaps, and then types every field into the debtor, property, creditor, income and expense screens in Best Case. The attorney later compares the draft petition against the same handwritten pages. The information is read at least three times and typed once, and the typing is where the clerical hours concentrate.
Transcription errors do not stay small. Amending the schedules of creditors or the creditor matrix costs $34 under the US Courts Bankruptcy Miscellaneous Fee Schedule effective December 2023, before staff time, and a creditor missed until after the 341 meeting costs an amendment, a supplemental notice and a conversation with the trustee. In the Department of Justice and US Trustee debtor audit program for FY2024, 110 of 539 audited cases, or 20%, had at least one material misstatement.
Can you import a completed questionnaire into Best Case?
Best Case has no import path for a completed paper questionnaire. There is no public API, and the .BCB file format has no published specification. The reference site file.org lists Best Case as the program that opens .BCB and states plainly that “we do not yet describe the BCB file format.” Four routes get data into Best Case today, and none of them reads the paper packet the client filled in.
| Route | What it covers | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Manual keying | Everything on the questionnaire | Paralegal time |
| Credit-report import via CIN Legal Data Services, a Stretto property | Creditors only, so Schedules D, E and F | Per report. Stretto claims it saves an average of 60 minutes of data entry per case |
| MyCaseInfo online questionnaire | Data the client types into a web form instead of the paper packet | Per download. Stretto’s own guide says “Pay only for data you download” |
| Client-file transfer | Best Case’s own case files, and imports from EZ-Filing | Included |
The MyCaseInfo guide states the goal in Best Case’s own words, promising firms they can “minimize time-intensive data entry and eliminate the need for paper questionnaires.” That is the incumbent conceding both that the data entry is the cost and that the paper form is the input. The full comparison of these routes is in how data gets into Best Case.
Should firms still use a paper questionnaire?
Yes, for most consumer practices. The American College of Bankruptcy and NCLC guidance endorses a written questionnaire reviewed in an interview and recommends having the debtor sign it, which is a signed record of what the client disclosed. Consumer debtors are also the population least able to complete a long web form, so paper is often the version that comes back finished.
The case against paper is really a case against retyping it. An online questionnaire improves capture for clients who finish it and quietly loses the ones who do not, and it moves the firm to a per-download charge. A firm that keeps the packet and removes the transcription keeps the signed record, the in-office consult and the completion rate. Form design is covered in building a bankruptcy client intake form.
How to get a handwritten questionnaire into Best Case without retyping
Casewell was built for this exact document. A paralegal scans the completed packet and uploads it as a PDF of up to 25 MB. Casewell reads it five times by default, across three different vision models and three prompt framings, then compares every field across those independent reads. Fields where the reads agree pass through. Fields where they disagree, plus high-stakes values such as Social Security numbers, debtor names and the creditor list, are put in front of staff with the cropped handwriting shown beside the candidate values.
Casewell then writes a .BCB file using the genuine TopSpeed engine, reads the generated file back to confirm every creditor row and schedule code before delivery, and hands it over for import. The firm keeps Best Case, its case history and its filing workflow, and the attorney reviews the imported case before filing. The reading mechanism is explained in OCR for handwritten legal intake forms, and the end-to-end run is on how it works.
Where can I download the Best Case client questionnaire?
The 34-page form is copyright Best Case Solutions and is distributed through Best Case, so a firm should obtain it from Stretto rather than from a copy posted on another firm’s website. Many firms adapt their own packet from it instead.
How many pages is the Best Case client questionnaire?
The circulating version marked “Copyright © 1996-2008 Best Case Solutions” runs 34 pages across seven sections, including 35 numbered personal-property categories and repeated creditor blocks for secured, priority and unsecured claims.
Does the client have to sign the questionnaire?
No rule requires it, and the American College of Bankruptcy and NCLC best-practices guidance says it is generally good practice to have the debtor sign any completed questionnaire. A signed packet is a record of what the client disclosed at intake.
Is MyCaseInfo a replacement for the paper questionnaire?
MyCaseInfo is Best Case’s online questionnaire, priced per download, and it covers clients who will complete a web form. Firms report that consumer debtors frequently will not, which is why the paper packet is still in circulation.
Can Casewell read a firm’s own questionnaire rather than the Best Case one?
Yes. Casewell works from per-firm form profiles rather than a single fixed layout, so a firm’s own adapted packet is read the same way as the Best Case version.
Best Case and Stretto are trademarks of their respective owners. Casewell is an independent product and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Best Case, Stretto, or any of their affiliates. References to Best Case and Stretto describe compatibility only and are nominative (descriptive) use.
This page is general information for law-firm staff, not legal advice for any particular case.