S.D. Tex. BLR 1002-1 — Commencement of Case and Divisional Filing Locations

High confidence· verified September 26, 2026Local Rules

Summary

S.D. Tex. BLR 1002-1 — Commencement of Case and Divisional Filing Locations: the court's own rule, verbatim from Bankruptcy Local Rules (Effective March 3, 2026), official PDF, sha-custodied. Court-level requirement: applies in every case before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas alongside the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure and any judge-specific procedures.

Requirement

(a) Corporate or partnership parties must be represented by counsel at all times. (b) Cases must be filed in the division of the debtor’s “principal location”, as defined in subparagraphs (c) and (d). Nothing in this rule precludes a party-in-interest from filing a motion to transfer a case to another division under BLR 1014-1. (c) For an individual debtor, the debtor’s principal location is the county of the debtor’s principal residence or domicile for the longest portion of the 180 days preceding the date of the petition. If an individual debtor did not have a principal residence or domicile within the Southern District of Texas for at least 91 days before the filing of the petition, the individual debtor’s principal location is the county of the debtor’s principal assets within the Southern District of Texas. (d) For a debtor that is not an individual, the debtor’s principal location is the county of the debtor’s principal executive offices or principal assets for the 180 days immediately preceding the filing of the petition, or for a longer portion of such 180-day period than the principal executive offices or principal assets were located in any other county in this District. If there are no principal executive offices or principal assets within the District, the principal location shall be the Houston division. (e) Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, Complex Cases as defined under the Procedures for Complex Cases in the Southern District of Texas are governed by General Order 2018-1, as it may be subsequently amended.

Source of truth

(a) Corporate or partnership parties must be represented by counsel at all times. (b) Cases must be filed in the division of the debtor’s “principal location”, as defined in subparagraphs (c) and (d). Nothing in this rule precludes a party-in-interest from filing a motion to tran

Official source: Bankr. S.D. Tex. — Local Rules (U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas)
Source health: Healthy · checked October 4, 2026
Effective date: March 3, 2026
Last verified: September 26, 2026benchpath-appfed-rules-2026-09-25

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