How to convert a printed bankruptcy petition into Best Case
Short answer
Every consumer bankruptcy program prints the same federal official forms, so the printed package is the one format they all produce. Casewell reads a text-searchable official-form package of up to 200 pages and writes a Best Case Desktop file. Individual Chapter 7 packages are supported today. Exemptions, codebtors, intentions, most SOFA answers and the means test are preserved as notes for manual entry.
No bankruptcy platform imports another platform’s case. There is no published specification for the Best Case .BCB client file, no public Best Case API, and no vendor that offers a competitor conversion. What every program does have is a print button, and what it prints is the same federal official forms. That is the one shared format in the category, and it is what Casewell reads.
Can a printed bankruptcy petition be converted into Best Case?
Partly, and the honest answer is worth having in detail. Casewell identifies each official form from the title printed in its header and footer, reads each form separately, and assembles a Best Case Desktop file. Debtor identity, property, every creditor, Schedules I and J and the executory contracts reach that file. Exemptions, codebtors, intentions, most SOFA answers and the means test do not, and are preserved word for word in a review note instead.
| Official form | What reaches the Best Case file | What is preserved as a note |
|---|---|---|
| Form 101, voluntary petition | Debtor name, address, county, chapter, filing type and district | Prior filings, aliases, mailing address and joint-debtor identity |
| Schedule A/B, property | Real property, vehicles with year, make and model, household goods, electronics, clothing, jewellery, cash, deposit accounts, stocks, business interests and retirement accounts | Security deposits, insurance policies, annuities, collectibles, firearms and receivables, each listed by name and value under a heading that says it was not exported |
| Schedule C, exemptions | Nothing | Every exemption row, its property reference, the elected scheme, the amount and the statute text verbatim |
| Schedule D, secured claims | Creditor, address, account digits, balance and collateral description | Unsupported claim flags and additional notice parties |
| Schedule E/F, priority and unsecured claims | Every creditor with address, account digits, balance, priority type and classification | Unsupported priority types, disputed and contingent flags, and additional notice parties |
| Schedule G, contracts and leases | Each contract or lease with its description | Counterparty addresses and unsupported elections |
| Schedule H, codebtors | Nothing | Every codebtor with address, the related creditor and community-property answers |
| Schedule I, income | Employer, occupation, wages, overtime, gross pay, deductions and net monthly income | Unsupported income lines and spouse details |
| Schedule J, expenses | Dependants and every monthly expense line | Combined categories that cannot be split without guessing |
| Form 107, Statement of Financial Affairs | Legal actions only | Every other answer, with its printed question number and wording |
| Form 108, statement of intention | Nothing | Each property and lease intention and election |
| Form 122A-1, means test | Nothing | Current monthly income, annualised income, household size, the median comparison and the printed conclusion |
| Creditor matrix | Nothing new | Names and addresses, for reconciliation against Schedules D and E/F |
What has to be true of the package?
- Text-searchable. A PDF printed from the software. A scan or photograph of a paper petition has no text layer, and an image-only package is rejected with an error rather than half read.
- Not encrypted. A password-protected PDF cannot be opened for reading.
- Federal official forms. The router keys on the official titles and form numbers in page headers and footers. Local forms, Chapter 13 plans, court docket history and attachments are not read.
- Under 200 pages. One PDF, or up to twenty that merge in upload order, up to 25 MB in total, with a 40-page limit on any single form.
- One version of one client’s case. Never original and amended schedules in the same upload. Two versions of a schedule must be reconciled by a person, never picked by upload order.
- An individual Chapter 7 case. That is what has been verified end to end. Business petitions, Chapter 11 means forms, Chapter 13 plans and joint filings are not supported.
One thing to expect from any attorney-prepared petition. Part 7 of Form 101 carries the debtor’s contact fields, and firms normally leave them blank because the attorney’s phone and e-mail print in Part 8. A conversion therefore cannot supply a client phone number or e-mail address. Those come from the firm’s own intake, which is what getting client data into Best Case covers.
How long does a conversion take?
Minutes rather than hours. Reading the forms is nearly all of the elapsed time, because each one is read several times independently and the reads are compared. Assembly and file generation take seconds.
Review time is separate and is the part a firm should plan for. Every imported field is marked for review, and an attorney or paralegal compares each schedule against the source package inside Best Case before the case is used. That is faster than keying the case twice, and it is not zero.
Which programs does this work with?
Any program that prints the federal official forms, in principle, because the printed titles are what the reader identifies. In practice, Jubilee prints of individual Chapter 7 cases have been verified end to end, through to opening the resulting file in Best Case Desktop. Packages printed by NextChapter, CINcompass and other programs are the same official forms, but they have not been tested and we will not claim they have.
- Jubilee. Verified on a real print. The route, the carry-over list and Jubilee’s own export limits are on moving cases from Jubilee to Best Case.
- NextChapter. Untested print, and its own exports are zip and CSV files Best Case cannot read. See moving cases from NextChapter to Best Case.
- CINcompass. Untested print. Firms leaving it are usually moved onto Best Case by the same owner, which is covered in CINcompass alternatives and what migrants need to know.
- Best Case itself. Nothing to convert. A firm already in Best Case has the case in Best Case.
What does the review look like?
The job carries a review note grouped by form. Anything that could not be written into the Best Case file appears there in the words the form used, including exemption statutes, SOFA questions with their printed numbers, the means-test figures and any asset with no place to go in the file. The note ends with a plain list headed as not exported, so nothing quietly disappears.
Pages that were not read are listed by their page numbers rather than guessed at by position. The summary page, the declaration and an untitled creditor matrix all fall into that list, and a reviewer opens them to confirm there was nothing to take. A page is never assigned to a form because of where it sat in the package.
What is not supported?
- Chapter 13 cases, plans and the Chapter 13 means forms.
- Joint filings, and Chapter 11 specific means forms.
- Business petitions on Form 201.
- Image-only scans, photographs of paper and encrypted PDFs.
- Local forms, court docket history, claims registers and attachments.
- Original and amended schedules uploaded together as one package.
- Best Case Cloud. The output is a Best Case Desktop client file, restored with File then Restore Client from Disk.
Can you import a bankruptcy petition PDF into Best Case?
Best Case itself has no petition PDF importer. Casewell reads the printed official-form package and writes a Best Case Desktop client file, which Best Case opens with File then Restore Client from Disk. Identity, property, creditors, Schedules I and J and contracts reach the file. Exemptions, codebtors, intentions, most SOFA answers and the means test are preserved as notes for manual entry.
Does the petition have to be filed already?
No. It has to be printed. A drafted package that prints the official forms works the same as a filed one, as long as the PDF is text-searchable and carries the official form titles.
What about a scanned paper petition?
Not supported. A scan has no text layer, and an image-only package fails with an error instead of being partly read. Print the package from the software that produced it.
Does this work for Chapter 13?
No. Individual Chapter 7 is what has been verified. Chapter 13 plans and the Chapter 13 means forms are not read, and joint filings are not supported.
How accurate is it?
On verified packages the money has been right. Claim balances and classifications, claim totals, asset values and Schedules I and J reconcile to the printed schedules. What does not come across is what the print does not contain, such as the debtor’s phone number. That is why every field is marked for review and why a person checks each schedule.
Does Casewell keep the uploaded petition?
The uploaded package and the generated file are held under the normal retention policy and swept after seven days. Details are on the security page.
How does a firm get access?
Petition import is enabled per firm, by request, and is free during the current beta. It is off by default because moving real cases needs a conversation about which cases they are and what review they need.
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.