Amendments to Official Bankruptcy Forms 3A (Application for Individuals to Pay the Filing Fee in Installments), 3B (Application to Have the Chapter 7 Filing Fee Waived), 6I (Schedule I: Your Income), 6J (Schedule J: Your Expenses), 6 Summary (Summary of Schedules), 23 (Debtor's Certification of Completion of Instructional Course Concerning Financial Management) and 27 (Reaffirmation Agreement Cover Sheet), will take effect on December 1, 2013, if approved by the Judicial Conference at its meeting in September 2013.

Official Forms 3A, 3B, 6I, and 6J, which are only used in individual debtor cases, are revised as part of the Bankruptcy Rules Advisory Committee's ongoing Forms Modernization Project ("FMP"). Early in its evaluation of the existing bankruptcy forms, the FMP concluded that case opening forms for individuals should be separated from those used by entities. Forms used by individuals are designed to be more easily understood by users who are unfamiliar with bankruptcy and who are often not represented by an attorney. In addition to restyling, minor substantive changes are described in the committee notes for the four forms.

Official Forms 6 Summary and 27 are revised with updated line number cross references to Schedules I and J.

Official Form 23 and Director's Procedural Form B200 are revised in connection with a change to Bankruptcy Rule 1007(b)(7) that is scheduled to go into effect on December 1, 2013. The rule change will relieve individual debtors of the obligation to file Official Form 23 if the provider of an instructional course concerning personal financial management directly notifies the court that the debtor has completed the course. Official Form 23 is revised to reflect the rule change by including an instruction stating that the debtor should complete and file the form only if the provider has not already notified the court of the debtor's completion of the course. A similar instruction is added to the checklist references for chapters 7, 11 and 13 on Director's Form B200.

The three existing Directors Procedural forms for subpoenas - 254 (Subpoena for Rule 2004 Examination), 255 (Subpoena in an Adversary Proceeding), and 256 (Subpoena in a case Under the Bankruptcy Code) - will be withdrawn on December 1, 2013 and replaced with four updated versions (Forms 254, 255, 256, and 257) that incorporate pending changes to Civil Rule 45, which is made applicable in bankruptcy cases by Bankruptcy Rule 9016. The revised bankruptcy subpoenas more closely follow the topic organization of subpoenas in civil cases.