One row per Ch.13 case identified as within the § 1328(f) lookback window from a prior discharge.
Columns: current_district, current_year, current_chapter, prior_chapter, days_between, lookback_period_days,
lookback_triggered.
Year-by-year trend data 1990-2026. Columns: year, ch13_total, prior_within_lookback,
prior_outside_lookback.
Citation format
Open Bankruptcy Project (2026). § 1328(f) Successive-Filing Dataset, v0.1.
501(c)(3) public charity (EIN 41-5159631).
URL: https://1328f.openbankruptcyproject.org/dataset/
License: CC BY 4.0
Cutoff: 2026-04-27. Methodology: see /methodology/.
What's in v0.1
211,537 cases across 41 federal bankruptcy districts, 1990-2026
199,848 unique normalized debtor names
10,021 unique successive filers (2+ cases under the same name)
1,018 cases identified as within the § 1328(f) lookback distance from a prior discharge
Per-district + per-year aggregations
What's NOT in v0.1 (planned for v0.2+)
SSN-based matching (currently using name-only matching with known false-positive risk)
Pro-se vs. attorney-represented breakdown (requires docket-text classification)
"Plan completed without discharge" outcome flag (requires terminal docket-entry analysis)
National coverage (currently focused on the heavier-monitored districts)
Methodology
Detailed methodology is at /methodology/. Key points:
Cases pulled from PACER via CourtListener / RECAP and direct district-court ECF
Successive-filer matching by normalized debtor name (uppercase, punctuation stripped)
Discharge-event identification by date_discharged field on the case record
Lookback period: 4 years for prior Ch.7/11/12 discharge; 2 years for prior Ch.13 discharge per § 1328(f)(1)/(2)