18 U.S.C. § 156
Section 156 · Knowing disregard of bankruptcy law or rule
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case Marshall v. Bourque (In Re Hartman) (1997)
Most recently applied in In re McDonald (July 2013)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) Definitions.—In this section—
(1) the term “bankruptcy petition preparer” means a person, other than the debtor's attorney or an employee of such an attorney, who prepares for compensation a document for filing; and
(2) the term “document for filing” means a petition or any other document prepared for filing by a debtor in a United States bankruptcy court or a United States district court in connection with a case under title 11.
(b) Offense.—If a bankruptcy case or related proceeding is dismissed because of a knowing attempt by a bankruptcy petition preparer in any manner to disregard the requirements of title 11, United States Code, or the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, the bankruptcy petition preparer shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 1 year, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
The Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, referred to in subsec. (b), are set out in the Appendix to Title 11, Bankruptcy.
Amendments
2005—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 109–8, in first par., inserted “(1) the term” before “ ‘bankruptcy petition preparer’ ” and substituted “; and” for period at end and, in second par., inserted “(2) the term” before “ ‘document for filing’ ” and substituted “title 11” for “this title”.
Effective Date of 2005 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 109–8 effective 180 days after Apr. 20, 2005, and not applicable with respect to cases commenced under Title 11, Bankruptcy, before such effective date, except as otherwise provided, see section 1501 of Pub. L. 109–8, set out as a note under section 101 of Title 11.
Effective Date
Section effective Oct. 22, 1994, and not applicable with respect to cases commenced under Title 11, Bankruptcy, before Oct. 22, 1994, see section 702 of Pub. L. 103–394, set out as an Effective Date of 1994 Amendment note under section 101 of Title 11.