Petition Engine

Nothing gets filed until the file is right.

Petition Engine is bankruptcy software for consumer practices. It carries each case from the intake questionnaire to the discharge, and Preflight reviews every draft the way a supervising attorney would before a final set can exist.

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Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 in the Southern and Central Districts of California. More districts as firms join.

Case under review
Debtor 1
Alex J. Golden
Debtor 2
Jordan M. Golden
Court
United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of California
Chapter
7, not yet filed

Draft 4
61 pagesFinal set
61 pages

Preflight review

Final forms stay locked until nothing on this page is blocking.

Part 1:Schedules and exemptions

  1. Every asset on Schedule A/B carries a value
  2. One set of exemption caps for this joint caseBoth California systems compared. The 704 exemptions protect $12,480 more.
  3. Schedule J has no blank linesThree IRS standards filled in and marked as such.

Part 2:Means test

  1. Six-month window is March 1 to August 31, 2026, for a September 14 filing
  2. Both income methods agree at $5,412.07 a month
  3. Social Security left out of current monthly income, still shown on Schedule I
  4. No ownership cost claimed for the 2015 Civic, which has no loan

Part 3:Disclosures and notice

  1. Form 107, line 16 matches the fee on Form 2030Line 16 says $1,500.00. Form 2030 says $1,750.00.Line 16 now says $1,750.00.
  2. Every creditor has a notice address and the last four digits of the account
  3. Credit counseling certificates for both debtors are dated within 180 days

Part 4:Review and signatures

  1. Full Social Security numbers only on Form 121, from the attorney vault
  2. A supervising attorney has reviewed this draftNo review is recorded for draft 4.Reviewed by Dana Whitfield on September 14, 2026.

Ready to check 12 lines.

This is a working sample. When the checks finish, fix the warning and record the review.

Your paralegals will know where everything is on the first morning.

The screens follow the layout your office already knows from traditional petition software, with every button where your staff expect it. Moving over is a change of software, not a change of habits.

  • Forms and Schedules is the hub of every case
  • Creditors are entered name first, from the common creditor list
  • One income record per source, six months each
  • A status box on the means test tells you where you stand
Save Alt+SSave & Add Another Alt+ACancel Alt+C

One case, from the first call to the discharge.

Every part of Petition Engine writes to the same case file, so nothing is typed twice. At its fastest, the Golden case goes from the first call to a filed petition in a single working day.

The Golden case, September to December 2026
WhenPartWhat happens
Sep 149:00 AMIntakeRight after the first call, Alex and Jordan get a Client Portal link and answer the questionnaire from home. Each answer is entered once and feeds the schedules, the 341 questionnaire and the retainer.
Sep 1410:30 AMClient PortalThey upload paystubs, tax returns and bank statements from their phones. The portal shows them nothing is left to send.
Sep 1410:34 AMDocuments and AIEvery page is read within minutes, after account and Social Security numbers are masked. The figures are checked against the questionnaire and the schedules, means test and exemptions are drafted.
Sep 1411:45 AMDocumentsBoth debtors finish credit counseling online, and the certificates are recorded on the case.
Sep 141:30 PMCasesThe paralegal reviews the drafts in Forms and Schedules. Every save is a new version in the audit trail.
Sep 143:40 PMPreflightPreflight runs on draft 4. One warning is fixed and Dana Whitfield records the attorney review.
Sep 143:45 PMFilingThe final set downloads as one file in filing order, with the creditor matrix and a checksum manifest. Form 121 stays separate.
Sep 144:30 PMFilingPetition filedAlex and Jordan sign, your office files through CM/ECF, and the case moves to Filed. Seven and a half hours after the first call.
Sep 15NoticesThe notice of the § 341 meeting is logged. The October 5 meeting lands on the firm calendar, which your staff can subscribe to in Outlook, Google or Apple Calendar.
Sep 16DocumentsThe debtor education certificates are uploaded and recorded for both debtors.
Dec 7NoticesThe discharge order is logged and the case is marked Discharged, 84 days after the first call.

Every check names the rule behind it.

Preflight is not a spell-checker. It applies the rules a supervising attorney would, from Ransom to the one-set rule for joint debtors, and holds the petition when one is broken.

Each result shows the numbers it used, so the reviewer fixes the cause and not the symptom. Final forms stay locked until nothing is blocking, an attorney has reviewed the file and the Social Security numbers are in the vault.

Means test

  • The six-month window comes from the expected filing date11 U.S.C. § 101(10A)(A)
  • Social Security and VA disability stay out of current monthly income, and are still disclosed11 U.S.C. § 101(10A)(B)(ii)
  • No ownership deduction for a car with no loanRansom v. FIA Card Servs., N.A., 562 U.S. 61 (2011)
  • Both income methods are computed and reconciled

Exemptions

  • Both California systems are compared on every fileCal. Civ. Proc. Code § 703.140
  • Joint debtors get one set of caps
  • Exempt plus exposed always equals the total scheduled
  • Every dollar figure comes from a standards window an attorney has reviewed

Schedules

  • Every exemption claim names its statute and its capOfficial Form 106C
  • Schedule I matches the means-test income unless a job changed
  • Schedule J has no blank lines; omitted expenses get the IRS standard, marked as such
  • The residential lease stays off Schedule G

Documents and creditors

  • SOFA line 16 equals the fee disclosed on Form 203011 U.S.C. § 329; Fed. R. Bankr. P. 2016(b)
  • Every creditor has a notice address and the last four digits of the account
  • Collection agencies are notice parties, never a second debt
  • The core documents are in before the file is typed

Filing

  • Credit counseling is dated within 180 days of filing11 U.S.C. § 109(h)(1)
  • Attorney review is recorded before a final set exists11 U.S.C. § 707(b)(4)
  • Full Social Security numbers appear only on Form 121, from the attorney vaultFed. R. Bankr. P. 9037
  • Final forms are flattened and verified by reading them back

Your firm's own rules, the ones written down over years of filings, run alongside these.

How the AI is used, plainly.

  1. Numbers are masked first. Social Security, ITIN, EIN, account, card and routing numbers are cut to their last four digits before the AI sees a page.
  2. The AI reads the figures. Pay dates, gross pay, balances and payments come off the paystubs, returns and statements.
  3. One careful pass reads everything together. It notices the contradictions and drafts the schedules and the closeout memo under your firm's rules.
  4. Engines recompute every dollar. The means test, the exemptions and the totals are calculated by ordinary code, not by the AI.
  5. An attorney decides. What comes out is a draft for review. The software never files anything.

What comes back to the case

Employer
Coronado Marine Supply
Gross pay
$3,204.00, twice a month
Means-test month
August 2026
SSN
Last four only
Your firm stands alone
Every query is limited to your firm by row-level security in the database.
Encrypted field by field
Sensitive fields are encrypted with AES-256-GCM, and stored documents use a key that belongs to your firm alone.
The attorney vault
Full Social Security numbers are entered by the attorney at signing and appear only on Form 121.
Browser or desktop
Work in the browser or in the desktop app, and sign in with your firm's single sign-on.

Request access.

We bring firms on one at a time, so each one gets our full attention through the switch.

  1. We reply within one business day to learn how your office runs.
  2. We set up your firm, your people and your district standards with you.
  3. We stay on the phone through your first filing.

Prefer email? hello@petitionengine.com

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