On October 20, 2008, the President signed the National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Act of 2008. The Act provides a temporary exclusion from the bankruptcy means test for National Guards and Reservists. This new Act amends section 707(b)(2)(D) of the Bankruptcy Code and will be effective on December 19, 2008. CM/ECF has been modified to capture information relating to this temporary exclusion granted under this Act. The case opening process will not change. However, two new CM/ECF events have been added to alert the court and the trustee to the request for temporary exclusion.

The new Act provides temporary exclusion from chapter 7 bankruptcy means test for National Guardsmen and Reservists who were called to active duty or homeland defense activity for at least 90 days after September 11, 2001. The temporary exclusion expires 540 days after the debtor is released from active duty or no longer performing homeland defense activities. This amendment applies only to cases commenced in the three-year period beginning on the effective date of the Act (December 19, 2008).

New CM/ECF events have been created to accommodate this process and are described in the “What’s New in ECF” portion of our web page.