Envelopes containing notices generated by automation and mailed by the clerk will bear the return address of debtor's counsel or the debtor if pro se.

Committee Note: About 40,000 notices generated by the automatic BANS system are returned by the Post Office to the Clerk's Office each year because addresses supplied by debtors are incomplete or incorrect. This poses a heavy administrative burden on the clerk to call the errors to the attention of debtors, who have a duty under 11 U.S.C. §521 and Fed.R.Bankr.P. 1007 to provide correct addresses. If the notice cannot be served by the clerk, it is usually in debtor's interest to send the notice immediately to the correct address of the creditor and to file proof of said service with the clerk. Such action will give the debtor a basis to contend that each creditor's debt is discharged, and that creditors are barred after the time set by statute from contesting discharge or debt dischargeability.

This rule will cause the Post Office to return most of the misaddressed notices to debtors' attorneys. As a result they will receive any returned notice much faster than they would if the notices were first returned to the Clerkís Office and then sent to counsel. In addition, this procedure lessens the administrative burden on the clerk. The rule does not apply to notices by the clerk generated manually, as that would impose a heavy administrative burden on the clerk.

This rule replaces a general order of 16 December 1992.