28 U.S.C. § 1408
Section 1408 · Venue of cases under title 11
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 1,100 court decisions — leading case In re Beard (1987)
Most recently applied in In re Baribeau (August 2019)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 28 U.S.C. § 157 · 28 U.S.C. § 1334 · 11 U.S.C. § 101
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.
Except as provided in section 1410 of this title, a case under title 11 may be commenced in the district court for the district—
(1) in which the domicile, residence, principal place of business in the United States, or principal assets in the United States, of the person or entity that is the subject of such case have been located for the one hundred and eighty days immediately preceding such commencement, or for a longer portion of such one-hundred-and-eighty-day period than the domicile, residence, or principal place of business, in the United States, or principal assets in the United States, of such person were located in any other district; or
(2) in which there is pending a case under title 11 concerning such person's affiliate, general partner, or partnership.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Prior Provisions
A prior section 1408, added by Pub. L. 95–598, title II, §240(a), Nov. 6, 1978, 92 Stat. 2668, which related to bankruptcy appeals, did not become effective pursuant to section 402(b) of Pub. L. 95–598, as amended, set out as an Effective Date note preceding section 101 of Title 11, Bankruptcy.
Effective Date
Section effective July 10, 1984, see section 122(a) of Pub. L. 98–353, set out as a note under section 151 of this title.