How Many Subchapter V Cases Get Confirmed, and What Do the Dockets Show About Monthly Reports?

Findings

• Of 213 Subchapter V cases filed between November 1 and December 9, 2025, 162 had an outcome by October 6, 2026: 76 reached a confirmed plan (47%) and 86 were dismissed or converted (53%).
• Of the 66 confirmed cases whose monthly operating reports could be observed, 59 had filed them on time.
• In courts that publish every docket entry, 13 debtors never filed a monthly operating report. None reached confirmation; all 13 were dismissed or converted.
• Among cases with an outcome, 59 of 84 that reported on time reached confirmation (70%), against 7 of 15 with bunched or late reports and 0 of 13 that never filed.
• 53% of cases had neither a cash collateral order nor DIP financing on the docket. Where a cash collateral motion was filed, the median was two days after the petition.

The denominators

As of October 6, 2026: of 213 cases, 162 had an outcome, 43 were still pending, and 8 could not be determined.

Reports could be observed for 154 cases. In 109 of them the reports came in on time; in 32 they were bunched or late; in 13 no report was ever filed. The bunched-or-late group is small, and on its own its difference from the on-time group could be chance.

Cash collateral motions or orders appeared in 45% of cases and DIP financing in 8%.

Where the list came from

The starting list is every Chapter 11 case our daily PACER Case Locator search picked up with a filing date from November 1 through December 9, 2025. For each one we had the PACER case summary. A case counted as Subchapter V if the summary carried the Subchapter V flag. That gave 214 cases. We built the list before screening any case for our own outreach, so it was not picked for cases that looked troubled.

We randomized the order of the 214 cases with a fixed seed and collected them in that order, so that a partial sample would still be a random one. We ended with dockets for 213; one could not be located.

What we collected

Docket entries came from CourtListener, which assembles court RSS feeds and filings uploaded by its users. For most cases we pulled the entries that matched a fixed keyword list (operating report, 425C, dismiss, convert, confirm, cash collateral, adequate protection, financing, DIP, employ, retain, show cause, compel, plan, objection, extend, accountant, financial advisor, budget). We checked that method against nine cases pulled in full and found no missing entries.

Where the outcome was unclear from CourtListener, we checked the case directly in PACER: the free case query header for 41 cases, and a date-limited docket report where the header did not show confirmation. Twenty-seven cases could not be checked in PACER before this page was written; they are flagged in the case list, and every finding above holds with or without them (the confirmed share moves from 47% to 48%).

What we counted

• Outcome. An order confirming the plan; an order dismissing the case; an order converting it to Chapter 7; still pending; or unknown. Only orders count, not motions.
• Monthly operating reports. Docket entries for Form 425C reports, excluding amendments, exhibits, and motions about them. We compared the count to the number of months the case had been open. "On time" means reports came in month by month. "Bunched or late" means three or more reports filed on one day, or a first report more than 80 days after filing. "Never filed" means no report at all, and we applied that label only in courts whose RSS feed carries every docket entry.
• Cash collateral and DIP financing. Any motion or order on cash collateral or adequate protection; any motion or order for post-petition financing.
• Professionals. Applications to employ an accountant, financial advisor, or chief restructuring officer, where the docket text named the role. Many courts publish only a short label, so this count is a floor.

The classification rules are regular expressions in a script. Fifty cases with ambiguous labels were read by hand, and each hand call is recorded with the docket entry it rests on.

What this does not show

• Cause. A business that is failing stops filing reports. The dockets cannot tell us whether late or missing reports pushed a case toward dismissal or simply marked a case that was already ending. Eight of the thirteen never-filed cases have fewer than ten docket entries; they stopped almost as soon as they started.
• Courts that publish less. Some courts put only certain entry types in their RSS feed. In those courts a missing report or a missing cash collateral order may simply be unpublished. We labeled "never filed" only in full-feed courts, and we found several confirmations in partial-feed courts only by checking PACER.
• One filing window. These are cases filed over 39 days at the end of 2025, followed for about ten months. Forty-three cases were still pending. A confirmation takes longer to reach than a dismissal, so the 43 pending cases may raise the confirmed share as they close.
• Why a case was dismissed. Most dismissal motions carry no reason in the docket text. In one case the U.S. Trustee's motion to convert cited the failure to file monthly operating reports in its title; in the rest we do not know.
• Professionals. Because the role of an employed professional is visible only where the court publishes long docket text, we cannot say from this set whether cases with an outside accountant or advisor fared differently.

Check a case yourself

The case list is here: subchapter-v-dockets-2025.csv. Each row has the court, case number, debtor, filing date, a link to the CourtListener docket, our outcome call and the docket entry it rests on, the report rhythm and the entries counted, the cash collateral and professional flags, whether the call was automatic or by hand, and whether it was checked in PACER. Take any row to the court's CM/ECF system or to CourtListener and read the entries for yourself.

If you find an error, write to us. We will correct the list and note the change here.

To cite this page: Lee Restructuring Advisors, "How Many Subchapter V Cases Get Confirmed, and What Do the Dockets Show About Monthly Reports?" (October 6, 2026), docket review of 213 Subchapter V cases filed November 1 through December 9, 2025.

Who did this and why

Lee Restructuring Advisors prepares monthly operating reports, cash flow forecasts, and plan projections for Subchapter V and Chapter 11 debtors. We ran this count to see what the dockets say about the cases we work on. We have an interest in the answer, which is why the method and the list are published. What the reports have to show, and who can prepare them: Can a CPA or Bookkeeper Handle Subchapter V Reporting?. Our fees are fixed and published.