How to File Chapter 11 Bankruptcy: Petition, Plan, and Confirmation

To file Chapter 11 bankruptcy, you submit a voluntary petition and a full set of financial schedules to the bankruptcy court for the district where you live, run your business, or hold your assets, pay a $1,738 filing fee, and then operate as a debtor in possession while you build a reorganization plan for creditors to vote on and the judge to confirm. The process is document-heavy from day one, and the deadlines start running the moment the clerk stamps your petition.

Who Can File

Corporations, LLCs, partnerships, and sole proprietors can all file Chapter 11. Individuals can too, and there is no debt cap, which is why Chapter 11 becomes the option when someone’s debts exceed the limits Chapter 13 sets for individual filers.¹ You need a residence, place of business, or property in the United States.

Individual filers (not businesses) have one prerequisite: credit counseling with a nonprofit agency approved by the U.S. Trustee, completed within 180 days before you file. Skip it and the court dismisses the case.² There is a narrow exigent-circumstances exception if you tried and could not get an appointment within seven days, but you still generally have to complete the briefing within 30 days of filing.

Documents to Prepare

The petition itself is Form 201 for businesses and Form 101 for individuals, both available from the U.S. Courts.³ The petition is only the cover sheet. Federal law also requires schedules of assets, liabilities, current income, and current expenses.⁴

Schedules

Schedule A/B lists every piece of property you own or hold an interest in: real estate, vehicles, bank accounts, intellectual property.
Schedule D covers secured claims — debts backed by collateral, like mortgages and equipment loans.
Schedule E/F covers unsecured claims, from trade payables to credit card balances.
Schedule G lists executory contracts and unexpired leases, such as office space and equipment rentals. You will later decide whether to keep or reject each one.⁵
Schedule H identifies co-debtors: guarantors, co-signers, anyone else liable on the debts you listed.⁶

Top 20 Unsecured Creditors

You file a separate list of the 20 largest unsecured creditors who are not insiders, with each creditor’s name, address, and claim amount. The U.S. Trustee uses that list to identify candidates for the official creditors’ committee.⁷

Statement of Financial Affairs

This statement covers income over the past two years, any payments of $7,575 or more to creditors within 90 days before filing, and any transfers of property outside the ordinary course of business. The court uses this history to flag preferential payments and suspicious transfers.⁸ Individual filers also complete Official Form 122B, a monthly-income calculation that averages the six full months before filing.⁹

Filing the Petition and Paying Fees

File with the Clerk of the Bankruptcy Court for the district where you reside, run your principal place of business, or hold your principal assets. The total fee for a non-railroad Chapter 11 case is $1,738: a $1,167 filing fee set by statute plus a $571 administrative fee, all due at filing.¹⁰¹¹ Attorneys and registered filers submit everything electronically through the court’s CM/ECF system.

Court fees are the smallest part of the cost. Attorney fees in a Chapter 11 routinely run into the tens of thousands, and the court has to approve professional fees as reasonable. Handling a Chapter 11 without experienced bankruptcy counsel is a hard way to make expensive mistakes.

The Automatic Stay

When your petition is filed, an automatic stay takes effect immediately. Lawsuits pause, foreclosures halt, wage garnishments stop, and creditors cannot call to demand payment.¹² The stay also blocks the creation or enforcement of liens against your property and prevents setoffs of pre-filing debts. It stays in place through the case unless a creditor asks the court to lift it, which secured creditors most often do when the debtor has no equity in the collateral or the collateral is not necessary for a workable reorganization. The court notifies listed creditors about the filing and the stay.

First Day Motions

Business cases usually begin with a batch of emergency requests filed alongside or right after the petition. These first day motions ask the judge for immediate authority to pay pre-filing employee wages, keep existing bank accounts and cash management systems running, continue utility service with adequate assurance of payment, and pay critical vendors whose goods or services are essential to staying open.

Another common first day request is authority to use cash collateral, meaning cash or cash equivalents that a secured creditor has a lien on. You cannot spend cash collateral without court approval or the creditor’s consent. Relief granted at these early hearings is preliminary, so the judge can revisit or modify the order later.

The 341 Meeting of Creditors

The U.S. Trustee schedules a meeting of creditors under Section 341, generally 20 to 40 days after filing.¹³ You appear, testify under oath, and answer questions from the trustee and any creditors who show up. Expect questions about the accuracy of your schedules, your assets and debts, and whether the business can realistically reorganize.

Before the meeting, provide the trustee with recent federal tax returns and current financial statements such as profit and loss reports. Skipping the meeting or refusing to hand over documents gives the trustee grounds to seek dismissal or conversion of the case to Chapter 7.¹⁴

Hiring Professionals

As debtor in possession, you cannot simply keep paying your existing lawyers and accountants from estate funds. The court has to approve the employment of attorneys, accountants, appraisers, and other professionals, and each one must be “disinterested,” meaning they hold no interest adverse to the estate.¹⁵ All fees paid from estate funds must also be approved as reasonable. If you continue operating, you can keep salaried professionals already on staff without a separate approval, but new engagements require a formal application.

Ongoing Reporting and Quarterly Fees

Filing is the start, not the end, of your disclosure duties. Throughout the case, you file monthly operating reports with the court and serve them on the U.S. Trustee and any official committee. The reports cover cash receipts and disbursements, profitability, employee headcount, insurance, tax compliance, professional fees, and any assets sold outside the ordinary course of business.¹⁶ Every field has to be completed; enter zero rather than leaving a line blank.

Quarterly fees to the U.S. Trustee are owed for as long as the case is open. For calendar quarters beginning April 1, 2026:

$0 to $62,624 in quarterly disbursements: $250 minimum, due even if disbursements are zero.
$62,625 to $999,999: 0.4% of quarterly disbursements.
$1,000,000 to $27,777,722: 0.9% of quarterly disbursements.
$27,777,723 or more: $250,000.

Fees are due no later than one month after each quarter ends, and payment goes through the U.S. Trustee’s Pay.gov portal.¹⁷ Falling behind is a ground the court can use to dismiss or convert.

Bankruptcy does not pause your duty to file tax returns or pay taxes that come due after the petition date. The debtor in possession stays responsible for post-petition income, employment, and (where applicable) sales taxes. For individual filers, the bankruptcy estate is a separate taxable entity with its own EIN and return.¹⁸ Failure to stay current on post-petition taxes is specifically listed as cause for dismissal or conversion.

The Disclosure Statement and Reorganization Plan

The plan is the point of the whole case. You have the exclusive right to file one during the first 120 days after the case begins. Miss that window (or any extension) and creditors or other parties can file competing plans.¹⁹

Before anyone votes, the court has to approve a disclosure statement. Think of it as a prospectus for creditors: it explains the debtor’s history, what led to the filing, how the plan works, and what creditors get compared with a hypothetical Chapter 7 liquidation. The statute requires enough information for a reasonable creditor to make an informed decision.²⁰

Voting, Confirmation, and Cramdown

Once the disclosure statement is approved, you send the plan, the disclosure statement, and ballots to every creditor whose rights the plan impairs. Voting happens by class. A class accepts when creditors holding more than half the claims by number, representing at least two-thirds by dollar amount, vote yes.²¹

If every impaired class votes yes and the plan meets the statutory requirements, confirmation is straightforward. The court has to find, among other things, that the plan was proposed in good faith, that it is feasible (meaning another bankruptcy filing is not likely to follow shortly), and that each creditor gets at least as much as it would in a Chapter 7 liquidation.²²

Cramdown

A no vote from a class does not automatically kill the plan. The court can confirm over objections through cramdown if the plan does not unfairly discriminate against the dissenting class and is “fair and equitable” to it.²³ What “fair and equitable” means turns on the type of claim:

Secured creditors must retain their liens and receive deferred cash payments at least equal to the value of their collateral interest.
Unsecured creditors must receive property worth the full allowed amount of their claims, or no class junior to them can receive anything under the plan.
Equity holders must receive the value of their interest, or no junior interest can retain anything.

The unsecured rule is known as the absolute priority rule, and it is where most cramdown fights happen. If unsecured creditors are not paid in full, existing owners generally cannot keep their equity, though courts have left a narrow, fact-specific exception when owners contribute substantial new capital the reorganization genuinely needs.

Discharge

For a business entity, plan confirmation itself operates as the discharge. Pre-confirmation debts are wiped out, and the company’s obligations going forward are governed by the plan’s terms.²⁴ The discharge applies whether or not a creditor filed a proof of claim or voted to accept.

Individual debtors are on a stricter timeline. Confirmation alone does not discharge your debts; the court grants a discharge after you complete all payments the plan requires.²⁵ Individuals also remain subject to the standard exceptions to discharge, so debts like student loans, recent taxes, and fraud-related liabilities survive the case.

What Can End the Case Early

Not every Chapter 11 finishes with a confirmed plan. The court can convert to Chapter 7 or dismiss the case if there is “cause.” Common triggers include:

Continuing financial losses with no realistic prospect of rehabilitation.
Gross mismanagement of the estate.
Failure to file operating reports or tax returns on time.
Failure to pay post-petition taxes or quarterly U.S. Trustee fees.
Failure to file a disclosure statement or plan within the required timeframe.
Material default on a confirmed plan.

Any party in interest — creditors, the U.S. Trustee, an official committee — can ask the court to convert or dismiss.¹⁴ The court can also appoint a trustee to replace management instead of converting or dismissing, when that better serves creditors. Conversion to Chapter 7 means the business shuts down and a liquidating trustee sells assets to pay creditors.

Subchapter V for Smaller Businesses

If your total noncontingent, liquidated debts (secured and unsecured combined, excluding debts owed to insiders) fall at or below roughly $3.4 million, you may qualify for Subchapter V, a streamlined version of Chapter 11 built for small businesses.²⁶ Subchapter V drops the disclosure statement requirement, removes the absolute priority rule, and appoints a standing trustee who facilitates the process rather than taking over. No creditors’ committee unless the court orders one. The debtor files a plan within 90 days instead of the 120-day exclusivity window, and confirmation can happen without creditor votes if the plan meets the statutory requirements. The debt threshold adjusts periodically for inflation, so confirm the current limit before you file.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 109 – Who May Be a Debtor
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 109 – Who May Be a Debtor – Section: Subsection (h)
3
United States Courts. Voluntary Petition for Individuals Filing for Bankruptcy
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 521 – Debtors Duties
5
United States Courts. Schedule G – Executory Contracts and Unexpired Leases (Individuals)
6
United States Courts. Official Form 206H – Schedule H – Codebtors
7
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Southern District of Mississippi. 20 Largest Unsecured Creditors List
8
United States Courts. Official Form 207 – Statement of Financial Affairs for Non-Individuals Filing for Bankruptcy
9
United States Courts. Official Form 122B – Chapter 11 Statement of Your Current Monthly Income
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 US Code 1930 – Bankruptcy Fees
11
United States Courts. Bankruptcy Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 362 – Automatic Stay
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 341 – Meetings of Creditors and Equity Security Holders
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 1112 – Conversion or Dismissal
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 327 – Employment of Professional Persons
16
eCFR. 28 CFR 58.8 – Uniform Periodic Reports in Cases Filed Under Chapter 11
17
United States Department of Justice. Chapter 11 Quarterly Fees
18
Internal Revenue Service. Bankruptcy Tax Guide
19
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 1121 – Who May File a Plan
20
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 1125 – Postpetition Disclosure and Solicitation
21
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 1126 – Acceptance of Plan
22
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 1129 – Confirmation of Plan
23
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 1129 – Confirmation of Plan – Section: Subsection (b)
24
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 1141 – Effect of Confirmation
25
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 1141 – Effect of Confirmation – Section: Subsection (d)(5)
26
United States Department of Justice. Subchapter V