At its March 2014 session, the Judicial Conference approved several changes to the Bankruptcy Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule effective June 1, 2014, as follows:

(1) The Judicial Conference approved an increase to the adversary filing fee in bankruptcy proceedings. The new fee will be equivalent to the filing fee for civil cases in the district courts, $350, an increase of $57 from the current bankruptcy adversary filing fee of $293.

(2) The Conference approved increases to the administrative fee (currently $46) assessed at filing in every bankruptcy case. As revised, separate administrative fees will apply to cases filed under the six different chapters of the Bankruptcy Code: a $75 fee for Chapter 7, 12, and 13 cases, and a $550 fee for Chapter 9, 11, and 15 cases.

(3) The Conference also approved applying the new administrative fee structure to “divided” bankruptcy cases. Currently, married couples are permitted to file a “joint” bankruptcy case under Chapters 7, 11, 12 and 13, and pay a single administrative fee. In some instances, however, couples who file for bankruptcy jointly may later decide to divide their case into two separate cases (e.g., because of separation or divorce during the pendency of their bankruptcy case). The amended fee schedule will require that the administrative fee be paid when a case is divided (which will be the same fee as that charged for initial cases filed under that chapter).

Clean and redlined versions of the revised fee schedules incorporating the changes discussed above are attached.