Checklist · Bankruptcy

Filing a Proof of Claim in a Bankruptcy Case: A Practical Checklist

28 U.S.C. § 156(c)

Type: Checklist
Jurisdiction: National
Date: 2024-03-29
Topic: Bankruptcy

When a customer files bankruptcy, the proof of claim is the instrument that converts an unpaid invoice into a legal right to share in the estate — and the bar date is the single most unforgiving deadline in federal practice. This checklist walks a creditor through the entire arc: confirming the case, chapter, and debtor entity; docketing the general and governmental bar dates; classifying the claim as secured, priority, administrative, or general unsecured; completing Official Form 410 and attaching the documentation Bankruptcy Rule 3001 requires; proving perfection and collateral value; asserting Section 507 priority and Section 503(b)(9) twenty-day goods status; serving a Section 546(c) reclamation demand inside its very short fuse; preserving setoff and recoupment without violating the automatic stay; and defending the claim when the debtor objects. It also flags the exposure most creditors ignore — the payments they received in the ninety days before the petition, which can be clawed back as preferences and which will hold the claim hostage under Section 502(d) until resolved. Bankruptcy is federal law (Title 11), so the framework is uniform nationwide, but local rules, claims-agent procedures, and case-specific bar date orders vary and must be checked. Use this as a working document, not a substitute for reading the actual notice you received.

Filing a Proof of Claim in a Bankruptcy Case: A Practical Checklist

Bankruptcy > Creditor Rights | Published 29 March 2024 - Updated 22 July 2025 | UpLaw - uplaw.us

A proof of claim is a one-page form that decides whether you get paid. Most creditors treat it as clerical. The ones who treat it as pleading — classified correctly, documented properly, filed early — are the ones who recover.

Keywords: proof of claim, Official Form 410, bar date, secured claim, priority claim, administrative expense, Section 503(b)(9), twenty-day goods, reclamation, setoff, recoupment, claim objection, preference, Chapter 11, creditor rights

How to use this checklist

Bankruptcy is federal law. Title 11 of the U.S. Code and the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure govern in every state, and the claims process is essentially uniform from Delaware to the Southern District of Texas. What varies is the local overlay: each district has local rules, most large Chapter 11 cases run claims through a court-approved claims agent under 28 U.S.C. § 156(c), and the bar date in a Chapter 11 case is set by a case-specific order, not by a rule you can look up in advance. Never assume the deadline. Read the notice.

Our running example: Ridgeway Components, Inc., a mid-sized parts supplier. Its customer, Calder Manufacturing LLC, filed Chapter 11 on 3 February. Calder owes Ridgeway $412,000 on open invoices. Of that, $86,000 is for a pallet of machined housings that Calder physically received on 19 January — fifteen days before the petition. Ridgeway received about $95,000 in payments from Calder during the ninety days before the filing. Ridgeway also holds a $30,000 credit balance it owes Calder for a returned lot. Every phase below runs Ridgeway's problem to ground.

If you are earlier in the story — you just heard the customer filed and you do not yet know what to do first — start with When a Customer Files Bankruptcy: A Creditor's Checklist, then come back here. For the doctrinal foundation, see Bankruptcy Law: A Comprehensive Guide to Chapters 7, 11, and 13.

Phase 1 — Confirm the case: chapter, court, debtor entity, and whether assets exist

[ ] Obtain the case number, district, and judge from the § 341 notice, the claims agent's website, or PACER.
[ ] Confirm the chapter — 7, 11 (including Subchapter V), 12, or 13. The chapter drives which bar-date rule applies.
[ ] Confirm the exact debtor entity. In a multi-debtor case there may be a dozen affiliated filers; you must file against the one that owes you.
[ ] Pull the debtor's Schedules D, E/F and check whether your claim is listed, in what amount, and whether it is flagged disputed, contingent, or unliquidated.
[ ] In a Chapter 7, determine whether the trustee has filed a "no asset" report. If the case is a no-asset case, the clerk's notice will tell you not to file a claim yet.
[ ] Identify the claims agent (Epiq, Kroll, Stretto, Omni, Verita, etc.) and its filing portal, if one has been appointed.
[ ] Diary the § 341 meeting of creditors date and decide whether to attend or send counsel.

Why it matters, and the traps

The chapter is not a detail; it is the whole architecture. In Chapter 7 and Chapter 13, the deadline comes from Fed. R. Bankr. P. 3002. In Chapter 11, it comes from Fed. R. Bankr. P. 3003(c)(3) and an order the court enters — usually within the first sixty days.

The most valuable thirty minutes you will spend is reading the debtor's schedules. Under 11 U.S.C. § 1111(a) and Rule 3003(c)(2), a claim scheduled in a Chapter 11 case is deemed filed — unless it is scheduled as disputed, contingent, or unliquidated, in which case the creditor must file a proof of claim or be forever barred. Debtors' counsel schedule claims as "disputed" reflexively. Creditors who see their name and the right dollar figure on Schedule F, exhale, and do nothing are the ones who discover at plan confirmation that the single word "disputed" appeared next to their line and their claim is gone.

Ridgeway: Calder's Schedule F lists "Ridgeway Components — $326,000 — Disputed." Two problems. The amount is wrong (it omits the January shipment), and the "Disputed" flag means Ridgeway must file. Ridgeway files regardless — the right practice is to file a proof of claim in every Chapter 11 case where you are owed real money, even if scheduled cleanly. A filed claim is cheap, and it fixes your amount.

Also confirm the corporate identity of the debtor against your contract counterparty. Groups that operate through holding-company structures — see Running Multiple Businesses Under One Structure: A Deep Dive into Holding, Operating, and Parent Companies — often have an operating entity on the invoices and a parent on the credit application. If both filed, file against both and say why.

A note on the boundary between federal and state law, because it recurs throughout this checklist. The claims process is federal. But the existence, character, and amount of your underlying claim are creatures of non-bankruptcy law — usually the state contract law your agreement selected. Section 502(b)(1) disallows a claim only to the extent it "is unenforceable against the debtor . . . under any agreement or applicable law," which sends the court straight back to state law. So does § 553, which preserves but does not create setoff rights. And who the debtor is — whether the parent guaranteed, whether the operating subsidiary is a separate person, whether veil-piercing or alter-ego theories reach an affiliate — is a question of state entity law, not the Bankruptcy Code. There is no national corporation law. Delaware is the reference point most practitioners use because most large debtors are Delaware entities and the Delaware courts have the deepest case law, but a debtor organized in Texas or New York is governed by that state's statute. Confirm the state of organization before you argue about identity. For the governance framework and the Delaware baseline, see Corporate Governance and Fiduciary Duties: A Comprehensive Guide for Directors and Officers and Board Governance, Minutes, and Corporate Formalities: A Practical Checklist.

Phase 2 — Calendar the bar date (the single most fatal deadline in bankruptcy)

[ ] Locate the general bar date for non-governmental creditors.
[ ] Separately calendar the governmental bar date (different, and later).
[ ] In Chapter 11, read the bar date order itself — not the summary notice — for service, format, and copy requirements.
[ ] Note any supplemental or rejection damages bar dates (claims arising from rejected executory contracts usually get their own deadline).
[ ] Note any administrative claims bar date, which is typically set later, near confirmation.
[ ] Calendar the deadline twice, with a two-week internal advance warning, and assign a named owner.
[ ] File early. There is no advantage to filing on the last day and no prize for timing.

Why it matters, and the traps

The defaults:

Chapter	Non-governmental deadline	Governmental deadline
7, 12, 13	70 days after the order for relief (Rule 3002(c))	180 days after the order for relief (Rule 3002(c)(1))
11 (and 9)	Set by court order under Rule 3003(c)(3) — read the order	180 days after the order for relief, § 502(b)(9)
7 no-asset case	No deadline until the clerk gives notice that assets exist (Rule 3002(c)(5))	Same

The governmental bar date matters to private creditors more often than they expect, because "governmental unit" is defined broadly in 11 U.S.C. § 101(27) and can reach entities creditors do not think of as government — municipal utilities, public pension funds, certain instrumentalities. If there is any argument your client is a governmental unit, do not rely on it. File by the earlier date.

Late claims are a cliff, and the cliff is steeper in some chapters than others. In Chapter 11, a creditor may move to file a late claim on a showing of excusable neglect under Rule 9006(b)(1), and the Supreme Court's four-factor test in Pioneer Investment Services Co. v. Brunswick Associates Ltd. Partnership, 507 U.S. 380 (1993) — danger of prejudice to the debtor, length of delay and its impact on proceedings, reason for the delay, and whether the movant acted in good faith — governs. But Pioneer is a lifeline, not a plan. "We were reorganizing our AR department" is not excusable neglect. In Chapter 7 and 13, Rule 3002(c) is a closed list of exceptions and there is no general excusable-neglect escape hatch; courts overwhelmingly hold the deadline jurisdictional in effect.

The informal proof of claim doctrine sometimes rescues a creditor who, before the bar date, filed something in the case that stated an explicit demand against the estate and an intent to hold the estate liable — a motion for stay relief, a reclamation demand filed on the docket, an objection. Courts vary on the elements. Treat it as a malpractice-mitigation doctrine, not a strategy.

Ridgeway: The Chapter 11 bar date order sets 12 May as the general bar date and 2 August as the governmental bar date, and requires that claims be filed with the claims agent's portal or delivered in hard copy — fax and email are expressly rejected. Ridgeway calendars 12 May, sets an internal deadline of 25 April, and files on 21 April.

Phase 3 — Classify your claim: secured, priority, administrative, or general unsecured

[ ] Break the total amount owed into its component parts by legal character, not by invoice.
[ ] Identify any portion supported by a lien or security interest (secured — § 506).
[ ] Identify any portion entitled to priority under 11 U.S.C. § 507.
[ ] Identify any portion entitled to administrative expense treatment under § 503(b) — including § 503(b)(9) twenty-day goods.
[ ] Everything left over is general unsecured.
[ ] Determine whether any part of the claim is contingent or unliquidated, and estimate it rather than leaving it blank.
[ ] Determine whether your contract has a prevailing-party attorney's fee clause — and preserve fees in the claim.

Why it matters, and the traps

The distribution waterfall is the whole game. Secured claims are paid from their collateral. Administrative expenses (§ 507(a)(2)) and other priorities come next, in the statutory order. General unsecured creditors split whatever is left, which in a typical case is cents on the dollar. Two creditors owed the same $100,000 can recover $100,000 and $4,000 respectively based purely on classification.

Do not classify by invoice. Classify by legal character, invoice line by invoice line. A single $86,000 invoice can be part administrative (goods received within 20 days) and part general unsecured (goods received on day 24).

On attorney's fees: Travelers Casualty & Surety Co. v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co., 549 U.S. 443 (2007), holds that the Bankruptcy Code does not disallow a contract-based claim for attorney's fees merely because the fees were incurred litigating issues of bankruptcy law. The Court rejected the Ninth Circuit's contrary "Fobian rule." So if your contract has a fee-shifting clause, your claim for fees — including fees incurred in the bankruptcy — is a claim under state law and rises or falls on § 502(b) grounds, not on a special bankruptcy penalty. (An unsecured creditor's postpetition fees raise a separate, unresolved question; an oversecured creditor's fees are expressly allowed by § 506(b).) Every credit application and supply agreement your business signs should carry a fee clause — see The Commercial Contracts Toolkit: Drafting, Reviewing, and Enforcing Business Agreements.

Ridgeway's classification:

Component	Amount	Character
Goods received 19 January (15 days pre-petition)	$86,000	§ 503(b)(9) administrative
Goods received October–December	$326,000	General unsecured
Contractual attorney's fees	TBD	Follows the underlying claim (Travelers)
Total	$412,000

Ridgeway has no security interest — it never filed a UCC-1 and never papered a purchase-money security interest in inventory. That omission costs it roughly $300,000. See Phase 5.

Phase 4 — Complete Official Form 410 and attach the supporting documentation

[ ] Use the current Official Form 410. Do not use a state-court form, an old form, or a letter.
[ ] Name the creditor exactly as it appears on the contract; add "f/k/a" or "d/b/a" if the invoices use a trade name.
[ ] State the amount as of the petition date — not today's balance, not with post-petition interest.
[ ] Attach the writing on which the claim is based, or, if lost, an explanation — Rule 3001(c).
[ ] Attach an itemized statement of interest, fees, expenses, and charges included in the claim.
[ ] Attach evidence of perfection if the claim is secured — Rule 3001(d).
[ ] For claims against an individual debtor secured by a principal residence, attach Official Form 410A (mortgage proof of claim attachment).
[ ] Redact personal identifiers under Rule 9037 — last four digits of account numbers and SSNs only, no dates of birth, no minors' names.
[ ] Sign under penalty of perjury. A false claim is a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. § 152(4).
[ ] File by the method the bar date order requires. Keep the stamped or portal-generated confirmation.
[ ] There is no filing fee for a proof of claim.

Why it matters, and the traps

Rule 3001(f) is the payoff for doing this right: "A proof of claim executed and filed in accordance with these rules shall constitute prima facie evidence of the validity and amount of the claim." That single sentence shifts the evidentiary burden. If your claim complies with Rule 3001, an objector must come forward with evidence of equal probative force to defeat it. If your claim does not comply — no contract attached, no itemization, an unsigned form — you forfeit the presumption and you carry the burden of proving your claim from scratch, in a bankruptcy court, on the debtor's timetable.

That is the entire reason to attach documents. Attach the credit application, the master supply agreement, the purchase orders, the invoices, the bills of lading, and the account statement. Attach a summary schedule if the invoice volume is large — Rule 3001(c) permits a summary where the documents are voluminous, but be prepared to produce the underlying records on request.

The "as of the petition date" rule catches everyone. 11 U.S.C. § 502(b) requires the court to determine the amount of a claim as of the date of the filing of the petition, and § 502(b)(2) disallows unmatured interest. So an unsecured creditor's clock stops on the petition date. Interest accruing after that date is not allowable except in the rare solvent-debtor case or where the creditor is oversecured under § 506(b).

Ridgeway: Its accounting system spits out a payoff quote that includes 1.5%-per-month finance charges through the current date. Filing that number overstates the claim, invites an objection, and burns credibility with the claims agent and the committee. Ridgeway freezes the balance at 3 February, itemizes the pre-petition finance charges separately (they are allowable if the contract provides for them), and attaches the aging report.

Phase 5 — Secured claims: prove perfection and value the collateral

[ ] Identify the security interest, lien, or mortgage and the collateral it covers.
[ ] Attach the security agreement and the filed UCC-1 (or mortgage, or certificate-of-title notation) — Rule 3001(d).
[ ] Confirm the UCC-1 was filed in the correct jurisdiction (the debtor's state of organization) and has not lapsed (five years; continuation statement within six months before lapse).
[ ] Confirm the debtor's exact legal name on the financing statement — a seriously misleading name defeats perfection.
[ ] State a good-faith value for the collateral on Form 410. Attach an appraisal or valuation support if the number is contested.
[ ] Compute the § 506(a) bifurcation: secured up to the value of the collateral; the deficiency is general unsecured.
[ ] If oversecured, claim post-petition interest and reasonable fees, costs, and charges under § 506(b).
[ ] Check whether a senior lender's blanket floating lien has already swallowed the collateral.
[ ] Watch the DIP financing order for liens priming yours and for challenge-period deadlines.

Why it matters, and the traps

A secured claim is only as good as its perfection, and perfection is where creditors lose. Under § 506(a), a claim is secured only to the extent of the value of the estate's interest in the collateral; the rest is unsecured. Under § 544(a), the trustee or debtor in possession has the powers of a hypothetical lien creditor and can avoid an unperfected security interest entirely — turning a fully secured claim into a general unsecured one with a stroke of a pen.

Then there is the practical trap: even a perfected junior interest is worthless if a senior asset-based lender holds a properly perfected blanket lien on all assets, and the collateral is under water. In most middle-market Chapter 11 cases the ABL lender's lien covers everything. Read the first-day DIP motion; it will tell you exactly what the senior lender claims and what "carve-out" (if any) exists for others. And note the challenge period — DIP orders typically give the committee (and sometimes other parties) a short window, often 60 to 75 days, to challenge the lender's liens. After that, the stipulations bind everyone.

Ridgeway's counterfactual: Had Ridgeway taken a purchase-money security interest in inventory under UCC § 9-324(b), it would need to (1) perfect by filing before the debtor received possession of the goods, and (2) send authenticated notice to every prior inventory secured party of record before delivery. That is a real, workable program — and the kind of credit-hygiene decision that belongs in your contracting stack from day one, alongside personal guarantees, credit insurance, and letters of credit. See The Small Business Legal Toolkit and Incorporating a Startup the Right Way: A Founder's Legal Checklist for how these terms get built into the trading relationship before there is a problem.

If you carry trade credit insurance, the customer's filing is almost always a notice trigger, and the policy's notice conditions are strict and short. Do not let the bankruptcy consume all your attention while a coverage deadline runs. Note also that insurance is state law — policy interpretation, notice-prejudice rules, and bad-faith standards differ materially from state to state, and there is no uniform national rule — so read your policy and your state's law rather than a general summary. See Tendering a Claim and Preserving Coverage: A Policyholder's Checklist and Insurance Coverage Law: A Comprehensive Guide for Policyholders.

Phase 6 — Priority claims under Section 507 and the wage/deposit categories

[ ] Walk 11 U.S.C. § 507(a)(1)–(10) and test each subsection against your claim.
[ ] § 507(a)(2) — administrative expenses allowed under § 503(b) (see Phase 7).
[ ] § 507(a)(4) — wages, salaries, and commissions earned within 180 days before the petition or the cessation of business, whichever is earlier, subject to a per-employee dollar cap.
[ ] § 507(a)(5) — contributions to an employee benefit plan for services rendered in the same 180-day window, subject to a cap.
[ ] § 507(a)(7) — consumer deposits for goods or services purchased for personal use but never delivered, subject to a cap.
[ ] § 507(a)(8) — certain tax claims (income, trust-fund, employment, excise, customs).
[ ] Verify the current dollar caps. They are adjusted for inflation every three years under 11 U.S.C. § 104 and change on 1 April of the adjustment year.
[ ] Check the box on Form 410 asserting priority and identify the subsection.

Why it matters, and the traps

Priority is a statutory list, not an equitable argument. If your claim does not fit a subsection of § 507(a), it is not a priority claim, no matter how sympathetic. Courts construe the priority categories narrowly, because every dollar of priority is a dollar taken from the general unsecured pool.

Two traps recur. First, the § 507(a)(4) commission trap: independent sales representatives can qualify, but the statute has specific conditions, and courts scrutinize whether the claimant is a covered individual and whether the commissions were "earned" in the window. Second, the caps are per employee, not per claim, and the excess above the cap is not forfeited — it drops down to general unsecured. Split the claim and check both boxes.

Do not guess the current cap figure from memory or from an old form. The § 104 adjustments have moved the § 507(a)(4) wage priority repeatedly over the last decade. Pull the current figure from the Official Form instructions or the Federal Register notice for the applicable adjustment year.

Ridgeway: It is a trade creditor, not an employee, and Calder is a business, so no § 507(a) subsection applies to its trade debt directly. Its priority path runs entirely through § 507(a)(2) — administrative expense — which is the subject of the next phase, and which is where the real money is.

Phase 7 — Administrative expenses and the Section 503(b)(9) twenty-day goods claim

[ ] Identify all goods the debtor received within the 20 days before the petition date.
[ ] Confirm the goods were sold to the debtor in the ordinary course of business.
[ ] Determine the value of those goods (courts generally look to contract price as strong evidence, but "value" is the statutory word).
[ ] Determine when the debtor received the goods — physical possession, not shipment.
[ ] Assert § 503(b)(9) on the proof of claim and comply with any separate motion or procedures order the court has entered.
[ ] Separately identify any post-petition goods or services delivered — those are ordinary § 503(b)(1)(A) administrative expenses.
[ ] Confirm your post-petition shipments are covered by a critical vendor order, an assumed contract, or the DIP budget before you ship again.
[ ] Diary the administrative claims bar date, which is separate from the general bar date.

Why it matters, and the traps

Section 503(b)(9) is the most valuable provision in the Code for trade creditors, and the most under-asserted. It grants administrative expense priority — paid in full, ahead of every general unsecured creditor — for "the value of any goods received by the debtor within 20 days before the date of commencement of a case under this title in which the goods have been sold to the debtor in the ordinary course of such debtor's business."

Read the elements literally, because courts do:

"Goods." Not services. Courts generally borrow the UCC Article 2 definition. Electricity, natural gas, and software licenses have all generated litigation, with mixed results. If you sell a mixed goods-and-services package, unbundle it and value the goods component.
"Received by the debtor." Courts predominantly read this as physical possession by the debtor or its agent, drawing on UCC principles — not title transfer, not shipment. This is the FOB-origin trap: if you ship FOB origin on day 25 and the debtor takes delivery on day 18, the goods were received inside the window even though title passed outside it. The reverse is also true and more painful — shipping on day 19 does not help you if the truck arrives on day 21.
"Within 20 days before." Count carefully and count backward from the petition date.
"In the ordinary course of such debtor's business." A one-off, out-of-pattern sale can fail this element.

Timing of payment is a separate fight. A § 503(b)(9) claim is allowed as an administrative expense, but courts have discretion over when it is paid, and many defer payment until plan confirmation rather than paying on allowance. Sophisticated trade creditors and creditors' committees negotiate for earlier payment as part of the § 503(b)(9) procedures order. That negotiation is worth having.

Ridgeway: Calder physically received the housings on 19 January; the petition was 3 February. That is 15 days — comfortably inside the window. Ridgeway asserts an $86,000 § 503(b)(9) administrative claim on Form 410, checks the administrative box, attaches the signed bill of lading and delivery receipt showing the 19 January arrival, and separately files the motion the court's § 503(b)(9) procedures order requires. That $86,000 goes from an expected recovery of maybe $3,400 (at a 4% unsecured dividend) to an expected recovery of $86,000. One correctly asserted line item on one form.

For the broader picture of how administrative claims interact with plan confirmation and feasibility, see Chapter 11 Reorganization: A Comprehensive Guide for Debtors and Creditors.

Phase 8 — Reclamation demands under Section 546(c) and their short fuse

[ ] Determine whether you delivered goods to the debtor while it was insolvent.
[ ] Compute the 45-day window: written demand must be made not later than 45 days after the date of receipt of the goods by the debtor.
[ ] If that 45-day period expires after the petition date, you get not later than 20 days after the commencement of the case.
[ ] Make the demand in writing. Serve it on the debtor, debtor's counsel, the secured lender, and the U.S. Trustee. File it on the docket.
[ ] Identify the goods specifically — part numbers, quantities, invoice numbers, delivery dates. Generic demands fail.
[ ] Confirm the goods are still in the debtor's possession and identifiable.
[ ] Check whether a senior secured creditor's floating lien on inventory already attached — § 546(c)(1) makes reclamation subject to the prior rights of a holder of a security interest in the goods or their proceeds.
[ ] Do not self-help. Do not send a truck. Do not stop delivery of goods already received. The automatic stay applies.
[ ] Whether or not reclamation works, preserve § 503(b)(9) — § 546(c)(2) expressly says failure to reclaim does not forfeit the § 503(b)(9) claim.

Why it matters, and the traps

Reclamation is the older remedy, and since 2005 it has been mostly a trap. 11 U.S.C. § 546(c) lets a seller of goods sold in the ordinary course reclaim goods delivered to an insolvent debtor — but subordinates the reclamation right to any prior perfected security interest in the goods. In practically every leveraged company, an ABL lender holds a perfected blanket floating lien on all inventory. That lien is prior. Which means the reclamation claim is, in the words of more than one bankruptcy judge, an empty right.

So why do it? Three reasons. First, it costs almost nothing — one letter, inside twenty days. Second, occasionally the debtor is not fully encumbered, or the lender is oversecured and the collateral is not needed, and the reclamation right has real value. Third, a timely, docketed reclamation demand that states an explicit demand against the estate can serve as an informal proof of claim if the formal filing is somehow blown.

The deadline is brutal and it runs from receipt of the goods, not from the bankruptcy. Miss it and it is gone. Send the letter the week you learn about the filing.

Ridgeway: The housings were received 19 January. Forty-five days from 19 January is 5 March, which is after the 3 February petition — so Ridgeway's actual deadline is 20 days after 3 February, i.e., 23 February. Ridgeway sends a written reclamation demand on 9 February identifying the housings by part number and delivery receipt. Calder's ABL lender, Fenmore Capital, holds a perfected floating lien on all inventory, so the reclamation claim is subordinate and will recover nothing. Ridgeway loses nothing by having sent it, and its § 503(b)(9) claim — expressly preserved by § 546(c)(2) — is untouched. This is the correct sequence: reclaim as a hedge, but build your case on § 503(b)(9).

Phase 9 — Setoff and recoupment: preserve them, do not exercise them (the stay!)

[ ] Identify any amount you owe the debtor — credits, rebates, deposits, returns, unearned prepayments.
[ ] Test for mutuality: same parties, same capacity, and both debts pre-petition.
[ ] If setoff applies, check the setoff box on Form 410 and state the amount. Do not silently net.
[ ] Do not exercise setoff. 11 U.S.C. § 362(a)(7) stays "the setoff of any debt owing to the debtor."
[ ] If you need to exercise setoff, move for relief from the automatic stay first.
[ ] Consider an administrative freeze on funds you hold, pending a stay-relief motion.
[ ] Test separately for recoupment — same transaction, not subject to § 553 or the stay in most circuits.
[ ] Beware the 90-day improvement-in-position rule of § 553(b).

Why it matters, and the traps

Section 553 does not create a setoff right; it preserves whatever right you already had under non-bankruptcy law, subject to conditions. The core condition is mutuality: the debts must be owed between the same parties in the same right, and — critically — both must be pre-petition. You cannot set off a pre-petition receivable against a post-petition payable. Creditors do this constantly and it is a stay violation.

And even a valid, mutual, pre-petition setoff right must not be exercised without stay relief. Section 362(a)(7) is explicit. The Supreme Court's decision in Citizens Bank of Maryland v. Strumpf, 516 U.S. 16 (1995), draws the line: a bank's temporary administrative hold on a debtor's account, while it moved for stay relief, was not a setoff and did not violate the stay — because a setoff requires a decision to permanently reduce the debt, and the bank had merely refused to pay out. Strumpf is your playbook. Freeze, then move. Do not net.

Recoupment is different in kind. It is an equitable doctrine allowing the netting of claims arising from the same transaction — a defense to the amount owed, not a setoff of an independent debt. Most circuits hold recoupment is not subject to § 553 or the automatic stay. But the "same transaction" requirement is construed narrowly; a series of invoices under a master agreement is usually not one transaction.

Ridgeway: It owes Calder a $30,000 credit for a returned lot — both debts pre-petition, same parties, mutual. Ridgeway asserts setoff on Form 410 (reducing its stated general unsecured claim from $326,000 to $296,000 while flagging the $30,000 setoff on the form) and does not apply the credit unilaterally. It also does not release the $30,000 to Calder. Under Strumpf, it holds, discloses, and files a stay-relief motion. If Ridgeway had simply netted the credit without telling anyone, it would face a stay-violation motion and a damages claim under § 362(k) — a bad trade for a $30,000 credit.

Phase 10 — Responding to a claim objection

[ ] Diary the response deadline in the objection. Rule 3007(a) requires the objection be filed and served at least 30 days before the hearing, but the response deadline is set by local rule or the objection itself.
[ ] Read the objection's grounds and match them to § 502(b)'s enumerated list.
[ ] Confirm your claim complied with Rule 3001 — if it did, invoke the Rule 3001(f) prima facie presumption.
[ ] Check whether it is an omnibus objection under Rule 3007(e) — those are limited to enumerated procedural grounds and may not be used for substantive attacks.
[ ] Check whether the objection also seeks relief listed in Rule 7001 (e.g., avoidance of your lien). If so, it must proceed as an adversary proceeding, not a contested matter.
[ ] Determine whether the objection is really a § 502(d) hostage-taking based on a preference. If so, go to Phase 11.
[ ] Respond in writing with evidence, not argument — declarations, contracts, delivery records.
[ ] Consider amending the claim rather than fighting, where the objection is right on the numbers.
[ ] Consider settlement. Most claim objections settle; the estate's cost of litigating is real leverage.
[ ] Understand what filing the claim cost you: by filing, you have submitted to the bankruptcy court's equitable jurisdiction and likely waived a jury trial on claims-resolution issues.

Why it matters, and the traps

A claim is deemed allowed under § 502(a) unless a party in interest objects. Once an objection is filed, § 502(b) supplies the exclusive grounds for disallowance — the claim is unenforceable under applicable law, it is for unmatured interest, it exceeds a statutory cap, and so on. Note two caps that surprise creditors: § 502(b)(6) caps a landlord's lease-rejection damages, and § 502(b)(7) caps an employee's termination damages. Those are not equities; they are arithmetic.

The burden-shifting dance runs like this. A Rule 3001-compliant claim is prima facie valid (Rule 3001(f)). The objector must produce evidence sufficient to negate the presumption. If it does, the ultimate burden of persuasion returns to the claimant, who must prove the claim by a preponderance. Which is why Phase 4's documentation discipline pays off here, six months later, and why creditors who filed a bare form with no attachments find themselves proving a five-year-old account from scratch.

Then the jurisdictional consequence. Under Katchen v. Landy, 382 U.S. 323 (1966), Granfinanciera, S.A. v. Nordberg, 492 U.S. 33 (1989), and Langenkamp v. Culp, 498 U.S. 42 (1990), a creditor who files a proof of claim submits to the equitable claims-allowance process and loses the Seventh Amendment jury-trial right on matters integral to the restructuring of the debtor-creditor relationship — including, notably, a preference action the trustee brings back against it. Stern v. Marshall, 564 U.S. 462 (2011), complicated the constitutional picture for certain state-law counterclaims, but the core point stands: filing a claim has litigation consequences. If you are holding a large preference exposure and no meaningful claim, the decision to file at all deserves a moment's thought — and a conversation with counsel. Compare the intake analysis in Evaluating a New Civil Case: A Practical Checklist.

One more practical point. If the objection goes to an evidentiary hearing, you are in a federal court applying the Federal Rules of Evidence (Fed. R. Bankr. P. 9017 makes them applicable in bankruptcy cases). Business records need a custodian or a Rule 902(11) certification; delivery receipts and bills of lading need a foundation. Build the exhibit list the way you would for any trial — see Laying Foundations and Admitting Exhibits: A Practical Checklist — and remember that the party who assembled the file at claim-filing time is the party who has an exhibit list at hearing time.

Ridgeway: Calder's debtor-in-possession files an omnibus objection reducing Ridgeway's claim to $326,000 on the ground that the § 503(b)(9) amount is "unsupported." Because Ridgeway attached the signed 19 January delivery receipt and the bill of lading, the DIP has no evidence to rebut the presumption. Ridgeway files a two-page response attaching the same documents plus a declaration from its logistics manager. The DIP withdraws the objection as to the $86,000.

Phase 11 — Watching for preference exposure on your own receipts

[ ] Pull every payment you received from the debtor in the 90 days before the petition (one year if you are an insider).
[ ] Compute your total 90-day receipts. That is your gross exposure.
[ ] Build the § 547(c)(2) ordinary course of business defense: historical days-to-pay, payment method, invoice-to-payment intervals over the full relationship.
[ ] Build the § 547(c)(4) subsequent new value defense: goods or services you shipped after each payment, unpaid.
[ ] Build the § 547(c)(1) contemporaneous exchange defense for any COD or cash-in-advance transactions.
[ ] Assess the § 547(b)(5) element: did the payment let you receive more than you would in a Chapter 7 liquidation? If the estate is solvent as to unsecured creditors, there is no preference.
[ ] Understand § 502(d): your claim will be disallowed so long as you hold avoidable transfers you have not turned over.
[ ] Preserve documents. Issue a litigation hold now.
[ ] Note that a trustee must now conduct reasonable due diligence and consider known affirmative defenses before filing a preference action (§ 547(b), as amended in 2019).

Why it matters, and the traps

Here is the cruelty of the claims process: the creditor who was paid best in the run-up to the filing is the one who gets sued. 11 U.S.C. § 547(b) lets the estate avoid a transfer of the debtor's property, to or for the benefit of a creditor, on account of an antecedent debt, made while the debtor was insolvent (presumed for the 90 days), within 90 days before the petition, that enabled the creditor to receive more than it would in a Chapter 7.

And § 502(d) is the enforcement mechanism: the court shall disallow any claim of an entity that is the transferee of an avoidable transfer, unless the entity has paid the amount or turned over the property. So the estate does not have to sue you first. It can simply object to your claim, park it, and wait. Your $86,000 administrative claim sits in limbo until the preference is resolved.

The defenses are real and they are winnable. Ordinary course (§ 547(c)(2)) protects payments made in the ordinary course of business between the parties or according to ordinary business terms in the industry — and the analysis is empirical: pull the payment history for the full relationship and compute the average days-to-pay before and during the preference period. Subsequent new value (§ 547(c)(4)) reduces exposure dollar-for-dollar by unpaid value you gave after a preferential payment. This is why the creditor who kept shipping often has less exposure than the one who cut the debtor off.

Ridgeway's exposure: It received $95,000 in the 90 days pre-petition. But Ridgeway's payment history shows Calder averaged 41 days-to-pay over three years and 44 days during the preference period — a strong ordinary-course defense. And Ridgeway shipped $86,000 of unpaid new value (the January housings) after the last payment — a near-complete § 547(c)(4) offset. Net realistic exposure: modest. Ridgeway assembles the payment history and the shipping records before the demand letter arrives, so that when it does, the response is a spreadsheet and not a scramble. On how to respond to (and how to write) that demand, see Writing an Effective Demand Letter: A Practical Checklist, and on preserving the records, Issuing a Litigation Hold and Preserving ESI: A Practical Checklist.

Common mistakes to avoid

Trusting the schedules. "It's listed, so I'm covered" — until you read the word disputed. In Chapter 11, a disputed, contingent, or unliquidated scheduled claim must be filed (Rule 3003(c)(2)).
Missing the bar date. There is no reliable cure in Chapter 7 or 13, and Pioneer excusable neglect is a hard sell in Chapter 11. File early.
Assuming the governmental bar date does not concern you. Check § 101(27). If there is any argument, file by the earlier date.
Filing a naked form. No contract, no invoices, no itemization — no Rule 3001(f) presumption, and you carry the burden at the objection hearing.
Missing § 503(b)(9) entirely. This is the single most common six-figure mistake trade creditors make. Twenty days. Goods. Received. Ordinary course. Check every shipment.
Confusing shipment with receipt. § 503(b)(9) turns on when the debtor received the goods. Pull the delivery receipts, not the invoices.
Claiming post-petition interest as an unsecured creditor. § 502(b)(2) disallows unmatured interest. Freeze the balance at the petition date.
Exercising setoff without stay relief. § 362(a)(7) is not ambiguous. Freeze under Strumpf, then move.
Self-help reclamation. Sending a truck to retrieve your goods after the petition is a stay violation with damages under § 362(k).
Ignoring the reclamation clock. Forty-five days from receipt, or twenty days from the petition. It runs while you are still deciding whether to call a lawyer.
Forgetting your own preference exposure. § 502(d) holds your claim hostage. Build the ordinary-course and new-value files early.
Not asking whether to file at all. Filing a claim submits you to equitable jurisdiction and forfeits the jury right on claims-related matters (Langenkamp). For a creditor with a small claim and a large preference exposure, that trade can be a bad one.
Filing against the wrong debtor entity. In multi-debtor cases, name the right filer.
Failing to redact. Rule 9037 violations draw sanctions and are embarrassing.
Never updating. Amend the claim when the numbers change; monitor the docket for the plan, the disclosure statement, and the voting deadline.

The consolidated proof-of-claim checklist

Intake

[ ] Case number, district, chapter, judge, claims agent identified.
[ ] Correct debtor entity confirmed against the contract.
[ ] Debtor's Schedules D and E/F pulled; your claim's listing and flags reviewed.
[ ] § 341 meeting calendared.

Deadlines

[ ] General bar date calendared, with a two-week advance alarm and a named owner.
[ ] Governmental bar date calendared.
[ ] Rejection-damages and administrative bar dates calendared.
[ ] Reclamation deadline computed from receipt of goods (45 days / 20 days post-petition).

Classification

[ ] Claim broken into secured / § 507 priority / § 503(b) administrative / general unsecured components.
[ ] § 503(b)(9) twenty-day goods identified from delivery receipts.
[ ] Contractual attorney's fees preserved (Travelers).
[ ] Contingent and unliquidated amounts estimated, not left blank.

The form

[ ] Current Official Form 410 used; Form 410A attached if a principal-residence mortgage claim.
[ ] Amount stated as of the petition date; no post-petition interest.
[ ] Contract, purchase orders, invoices, delivery records attached (Rule 3001(c)).
[ ] Itemized interest/fees/charges statement attached.
[ ] Evidence of perfection attached, if secured (Rule 3001(d)).
[ ] Setoff asserted on the form, not exercised.
[ ] Rule 9037 redactions done.
[ ] Signed under penalty of perjury; filed by the required method; confirmation saved.

Secured

[ ] Security agreement + UCC-1 verified: correct jurisdiction, correct debtor name, not lapsed.
[ ] Collateral valued; § 506(a) bifurcation computed.
[ ] § 506(b) interest and fees claimed if oversecured.
[ ] DIP order reviewed for priming liens and the challenge deadline.

Defense

[ ] Ninety-day payment history pulled; preference exposure computed.
[ ] Ordinary-course and subsequent-new-value defense files built.
[ ] Litigation hold issued.
[ ] § 502(d) risk assessed before objecting or negotiating.

Ongoing

[ ] Docket monitored; disclosure statement and plan reviewed.
[ ] Ballot cast by the voting deadline.
[ ] Objection response deadlines diaried.
[ ] Claim amended promptly if the numbers change.

Primary Authority

Statutes — Title 11, United States Code

11 U.S.C. § 101(27) — definition of "governmental unit."
11 U.S.C. § 362(a)(7) — automatic stay of setoff of any debt owing to the debtor; § 362(k) — damages for willful stay violations.
11 U.S.C. § 501 — filing of proofs of claim.
11 U.S.C. § 502 — allowance of claims; § 502(a) (deemed allowed absent objection); § 502(b) (grounds for disallowance, including § 502(b)(1) (claim unenforceable under applicable non-bankruptcy law — the state-law hook), § 502(b)(2) unmatured interest, § 502(b)(6) landlord cap, § 502(b)(7) employee termination cap, § 502(b)(9) governmental untimeliness); § 502(d) (disallowance of the claim of a transferee of an avoidable transfer); § 502(h).
11 U.S.C. § 503(b) — administrative expenses; § 503(b)(9) — value of goods received by the debtor within 20 days before the petition, sold in the ordinary course.
11 U.S.C. § 506 — determination of secured status; § 506(a) (bifurcation by collateral value); § 506(b) (oversecured creditor's interest, fees, costs, and charges).
11 U.S.C. § 507 — priorities, including § 507(a)(2) (administrative expenses), § 507(a)(4) (wages and commissions, 180-day window, capped), § 507(a)(5) (employee benefit plan contributions), § 507(a)(7) (consumer deposits), § 507(a)(8) (taxes).
11 U.S.C. § 104 — triennial inflation adjustment of the dollar amounts, effective 1 April.
11 U.S.C. § 544(a) — trustee's strong-arm powers against unperfected interests.
11 U.S.C. § 546(c) — reclamation; 45 days from receipt, or 20 days post-petition; subject to prior security interests; § 546(c)(2) preserves the § 503(b)(9) claim.
11 U.S.C. § 547 — preferences and the § 547(c) defenses (contemporaneous exchange, ordinary course, subsequent new value); 2019 amendment requiring reasonable due diligence.
11 U.S.C. § 553 — setoff; § 553(b) improvement-in-position rule.
11 U.S.C. § 1111(a) — claims scheduled in Chapter 11 deemed filed unless disputed, contingent, or unliquidated.
18 U.S.C. § 152(4) — criminal penalty for a false proof of claim.
28 U.S.C. § 156(c) — court-approved claims agents.

Rules — Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure

Rule 3001 — form and content of a proof of claim; 3001(c) (writing on which the claim is based; itemization); 3001(d) (evidence of perfection); 3001(e) (transfer of claim); 3001(f) (prima facie evidence of validity and amount).
Rule 3002 — filing in Chapter 7, 12, and 13; 3002(c) (70 days after the order for relief); 3002(c)(1) (governmental units, 180 days); 3002(c)(5) (no-asset Chapter 7 cases).
Rule 3003 — Chapter 9 and 11; 3003(c)(2) (must file if scheduled as disputed, contingent, or unliquidated); 3003(c)(3) (court fixes the bar date).
Rule 3007 — objections to claims; 30 days' notice of hearing; 3007(e) (omnibus objections).
Rule 9006(b)(1) — enlargement of time; excusable neglect.
Rule 9014 — contested matters. Rule 7001 — matters requiring an adversary proceeding.
Rule 9017 — the Federal Rules of Evidence apply in cases under the Code.
Rule 9037 — redaction of personal identifiers.

Uniform and State Law (applied through § 502(b)(1) and § 553)

U.C.C. Article 2 — the definition of "goods" that courts generally borrow for § 503(b)(9).
U.C.C. Article 9 — attachment, perfection, priority; § 9-324(b) (purchase-money priority in inventory: file before the debtor receives possession and give authenticated notice to prior inventory secured parties).
State entity law governs who the debtor is and whether an affiliate is liable. There is no federal corporation law; Delaware is the customary reference point because most large debtors are Delaware entities, but the debtor's actual state of organization controls.
State contract law supplies the enforceability, interest, and fee-shifting rules that § 502(b)(1) and Travelers send the court back to.

Official Forms

Official Form 410 — Proof of Claim.
Official Form 410A — Mortgage Proof of Claim Attachment (individual debtor, principal residence).
Official Forms 410S1 and 410S2 — notices of payment change and post-petition fees in Chapter 13.

Cases

Travelers Casualty & Surety Co. v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co., 549 U.S. 443 (2007) — the Code does not disallow a contract-based attorney's fee claim merely because the fees were incurred litigating issues of bankruptcy law.
Pioneer Investment Services Co. v. Brunswick Associates Ltd. Partnership, 507 U.S. 380 (1993) — four-factor "excusable neglect" standard for late claims in Chapter 11.
Citizens Bank of Maryland v. Strumpf, 516 U.S. 16 (1995) — a bank's temporary administrative hold pending a stay-relief motion is not a setoff and does not violate § 362(a)(7).
Katchen v. Landy, 382 U.S. 323 (1966); Granfinanciera, S.A. v. Nordberg, 492 U.S. 33 (1989); Langenkamp v. Culp, 498 U.S. 42 (1990) — filing a proof of claim submits the creditor to the equitable claims-allowance process and forfeits the jury-trial right on integrally related matters; Stern v. Marshall, 564 U.S. 462 (2011) — limits on bankruptcy courts' constitutional authority to enter final judgment on certain state-law claims.

Secondary Sources

Collier on Bankruptcy (Richard Levin & Henry J. Sommer eds.) — the standard treatise; the chapters on §§ 501–503, 506–507, and 546 are the working reference for every phase above.
Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice.
American Bankruptcy Institute practice materials on § 503(b)(9) and preference defense.

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This checklist is general legal information from UpLaw (uplaw.us), not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Bankruptcy is federal law, but local rules, claims-agent procedures, and case-specific bar date orders vary, and dollar caps adjust over time; verify current requirements against the actual notices and orders in your case and consult qualified counsel before acting.