Above District Average
Every district has a baseline dismissal rate reflecting local conditions - judge behavior, debtor demographics, economic factors. When an attorney's rate is significantly above this baseline, it controls for everything except the attorney. The variation is the attorney.
Possible Causes
High volume with low individual attention (mill practices). Bare petition filings without complete schedules. Failure to modify plans when client circumstances change. Poor client screening - filing cases that should not have been filed. Inadequate communication causing clients to miss deadlines or payments.
What It Does NOT Mean
Some dismissals are legitimate - the debtor voluntarily dismisses, gets a better deal outside bankruptcy, or converts to a different chapter. A single dismissed case is not evidence of malpractice. But a pattern - consistently above the district average across dozens or hundreds of cases - suggests a systemic problem.
Learn about malpractice
Malpractice Guide