The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York recently announced a pilot project to make digital audio recordings of court proceedings relating to General Motors' Chapter 11 bankruptcy publicly available online. The audio files are accessible through the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system. The Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court has also made Chrysler Chapter 11 transcripts available online as part of this project.  Registration for PACER access may be obtained at www.pacer.psc.uscourts.gov.

      Digital recordings are copies of court proceedings and are being provided as a convenience to the public at the cost of $0.08 per audio file. The court's announcement further states that, in accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 753(b), "no transcripts of the proceedings of the court shall be considered as official except those made from the records certified by the reporter or other individual designated to produce the record." A list of approved transcription companies can be found on the court's website.

     The Southern District of New York Bankrupcty Court's website also announced this morning that all documents in the GM bankruptcy case should be filed and viewed on http://ecf.nysb-mega.uscourts.gov/.  The lead case is: In re General Motors Corporation, 09-50026; parties filing documents (e.g., notices of appearance) should do so in the lead case only.  Additional case and claims filing information can be found on the Court's General Motors page.

-Drew Broaddus