BK and Google

[mand15]

just filed and have a question:

will bk show up when someone googles you? my attorney says no that it just shows up in the legal journals. hoping it doesn't show up online anywhere that my business associates or family could get wind of it.

[justbroke]

Generally speaking... no.

If your case is one in which the Judge writes an opinion due to an adversary proceeding or contested matter, and the Judge is basically setting precedence, then... yes.

Generally though... 99% of cases don't appear in a Google search. Routine matters are not considered "opinions" and are not "highlighted" by the Bankruptcy Court District, and, as such, do not appear in on-line search engines.

[queenfluff]

I was wondering about this myself. Thanks for posting that!

[Flamingo]

If your BK is posted in your newspaper after you file, then yes it will probably show if your name is googled. Some people put quotes around a name or phone number which apparently can bring up more information if a name or phone number was published.

[appleae]

Court schedule and debtor names via Google

If you live in northern illinois, beware! The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois (where we live) publishes two weeks of their court calendar on their website. It DOES list the BK confirmation hearings and includes the debtors full name (Last, Middle, First). If you type their full name into Google, click Search, the results will have a listing that links to their name on the court calendar. We have not filed yet, but something for us to look forward to.

[HHM]

Generally speaking no. After all, the fact that you filed BK is "valuable" information. So, unless the fact that you filed BK pops up on some random website (like a newspaper); the websites that typically gather information about you are looking to "sell" the fact that you filed BK. Thus, a google search will not usually bring up the info.

[lindsay2181]

I wouldn't be suprised if it did....I've heard, like several previous poster have mentioned, that in *most* cases the answer would be no, but in this day and age you can find LOTS of info online if you look in the right places.

[HHM]

I wouldn't be suprised if it did....I've heard, like several previous poster have mentioned, that in *most* cases the answer would be no, but in this day and age you can find LOTS of info online if you look in the right places.

But that is like saying, it is "possible" we are brains in vats of goo plugged into a super computer. It is logically possible, but not reality. Could someone find out you filed bankruptcy, yes. However, the person looking would practically need to know you already filed bankruptcy to even know where to look. The odds of someone simply "stumbling" across the information on the web is very low.

[AMISLANDER]

Don't be afraid of Google; be afraid of "www.pipl.com" you'd be surprised what you find when you look yourself up on that "people" search engine!

[backtoschool]

Generally speaking no. After all, the fact that you filed BK is "valuable" information. So, unless the fact that you filed BK pops up on some random website (like a newspaper); the websites that typically gather information about you are looking to "sell" the fact that you filed BK. Thus, a google search will not usually bring up the info.

I totally agree with this. Bankruptcy information will show up in the big online datamines and those datamines will charge for the info.

Now if you are having a court case with the bankruptcy judge, and your district's court publishes all cases scheduled online, or your district publishes opinions online, then your name might show up in a Google search, but it will be the online court opinion or scheduled case that will come up in the search, not your actual bankruptcy petition.

[lindsay2181]

Don't be afraid of Google; be afraid of "www.pipl.com" you'd be surprised what you find when you look yourself up on that "people" search engine!

hmm...i just looked up my husband for kicks and wow! found addresses listed for him all the way back when he still lived with his parents, myspace/facebook pages and even obituaries where he was mentioned as being a relative of the deceased.

[billf]

It really depends

If your BK is posted in your newspaper after you file, then yes it will probably show if your name is googled. Some people put quotes around a name or phone number which apparently can bring up more information if a name or phone number was published.

In my area a trade magazine publishes BK filings every week but it is a subscription based service, and I don't think the Google spiders can crawl into that data.

[toomanycards]

If you live in northern illinois, beware! The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois (where we live) publishes two weeks of their court calendar on their website. It DOES list the BK confirmation hearings and includes the debtors full name (Last, Middle, First). If you type their full name into Google, click Search, the results will have a listing that links to their name on the court calendar. We have not filed yet, but something for us to look forward to.

[appleae]

You are correct; the 341 meeting schedule is not posted on their website, but the confirmation hearings are. I will PM you a link to the site.

[appleae]

In Northern Illinois, the courts publish the court calendar on their public website. All confirmation hearings and motions get scheduled on the court calendar, which hearings 2 weeks out and is updated daily. The debtors names and case# appear, along withba description of the hearing, such as "John Doe Jane Doe Ch.13 Confirmation Hearing."

The BK court website is indexed by Google. If I search for "John Doe" one of the search results will be the court calendar with a brief description of the context, e.g "Judge Xxxxxx court calendar, John Doe, Ch.13 confirmation hearing."

Many employers, friends, family use Google as a tool to get information on people.

Our Ch13 case appeared on Google about a month ago. There is nothing we can do to remove the unwanted search result, but we have found a way to bury the negative result further down to the 6th page.

I totally agree with this. Bankruptcy information will show up in the big online datamines and those datamines will charge for the info.

Now if you are having a court case with the bankruptcy judge, and your district's court publishes all cases scheduled online, or your district publishes opinions online, then your name might show up in a Google search, but it will be the online court opinion or scheduled case that will come up in the search, not your actual bankruptcy petition.