News and Announcements

The Bankruptcy Judges are announcing the retirement of their colleague M. Elaine Hammond of the court’s San Jose Division. On behalf of the entire court, we extend our deepest gratitude to Judge Hammond for her distinguished years of service and significant contributions to the bench and community. The court conveys its best wishes for a fulfilling and rewarding retirement.

Judge Hammond’s cases will be reassigned on November 12, 2025. Counsel wishing to set matters for hearing in reassigned cases should use the procedures of the successor judge. Matters currently set for Judge Hammond’s calendars will need to be re-noticed and calendared. Counsel should contact the assigned successor judge’s courtroom deputy with any questions.

The Bankruptcy Court will be closed on November 27 and 28, in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit invites applications from highly qualified candidates for two Bankruptcy Judgeships for the Northern District of California. The official duty stations for these positions are (1) San Francisco, California, and (1) San Jose, California. Please click here for more information.

Commencing Monday, November 3, 2025, the Northern District of California’s public counters will be open from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.

On May 11th, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO) began implementing with PACER and CM/ECF users on a rolling basis multifactor authentication (MFA) to enhance system security. MFA provides an added layer of security to accounts to protect against cyberattacks and other security risks. Users with federal court CM/ECF filing access will be required to enroll in MFA by December 31, 2025. Users with only PACER access to view documents will have the option to enroll in MFA, but it is not required.

For more information, please visit the PACER website.