Bankruptcy in 2026: Confirmed Filings, Failed Strategies, and a New Distribution Calendar

Saks Global, Spirit Airlines, and a long line of retailers have already filed this year. FTX is paying creditors again on March 31. Johnson & Johnson lost a third bankruptcy attempt. Here is what actually shows up on PACER in 2026 — and how to read it.

On the morning of January 13, 2026, Saks Global Enterprises LLC and certain affiliates filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11, anchoring what has become one of the busiest opening quarters in modern U.S. retail bankruptcy history. The petition date and supporting first-day motions are documented on the official claims-agent site maintained by Stretto, the court-approved claims and noticing agent for the case, with affiliate petitions filed January 13 and January 14, 2026 (Stretto — Saks Global claims-agent docket, Case No. 26-90103, S.D. Tex.). According to industry reporting, Saks Global expects to exit bankruptcy in June 2026 with approximately $1.2 billion in remaining debt — a planned outcome that lawyers, vendors, and luxury suppliers have been tracking case-document-by-case-document for four months.

The Saks filing is not unusual. It is the leading edge of a year in which total bankruptcy court filings rose 11 percent to 557,376 cases in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025, with filings up in 83 of the 90 bankruptcy courts; Chapter 11 filings were effectively flat (down 1 percent) within that total (AOUSC — Judicial Business 2025). The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts reported separately that non-business bankruptcy filings rose 11.2% to 549,577 in the year ending December 2025 (U.S. Courts). Behind those numbers sits a paper trail — schedules, statements of financial affairs, claims registers, plans, and disclosure statements — that lives on PACER, on the claims-agent sites that mirror PACER for free, and increasingly on a small set of nonprofit archives that have made bankruptcy practice meaningfully more transparent than it was a decade ago.

The 2026 Landscape: Real Filings, Real Dollars

Saks is one of several major Chapter 11 cases that landed during the first quarter of 2026. Eddie Bauer LLC and four affiliated debtors filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions on February 9, 2026, with the case docketed by a court-approved claims agent and covering roughly 180 stores across the U.S. and Canada (Penn State Bellisario — Eddie Bauer) (Stretto — Eddie Bauer claims-agent docket, Case No. 26-11422, D.N.J.). The Diocese of El Paso filed for Chapter 11 reorganization on March 6, 2026, citing clergy sexual-abuse litigation as the driver — one entry in a long sequence of diocesan filings stretching back to 2004 (El Paso Matters). According to Catholic University's tracking project, 44 U.S. Catholic religious organizations have sought Chapter 11 protection as of March 2026, with 29 cases already concluded (Insight @ Dickinson Law).

Spirit Airlines is the year's most public collapse. The carrier obtained plan confirmation on February 20, 2025 and emerged from Chapter 11 on March 12, 2025, after equitizing $795 million in debt (SEC) (Holland & Knight — 2025 Aviation Bankruptcy Update). Five months later — August 29, 2025 — Spirit Aviation Holdings and five affiliates filed a second Chapter 11 in the Southern District of New York, a "Chapter 22" refile triggered in part by AerCap's termination of aircraft leases (Epiq — Spirit Aviation Holdings, Inc., et al., Case No. 25-11897 (S.D.N.Y.)) (Miami Business Law Review). The second case did not end with a reorganization. Spirit said in early May 2026 that it was going out of business after 34 years, and a White Plains, New York bankruptcy court hearing on May 5, 2026 opened the wind-down process; the full docket is mirrored on the Epiq claims-agent site (Epiq — Spirit case dockets).

JOANN Inc., the fabric retailer that emerged from a prior Chapter 11 in 2024, returned to the same code section. The company initiated voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings on January 15, 2025 in the District of Delaware (Kroll — JOANN Inc. claims-agent docket, Case No. 25-10068, D. Del.), filed its Joint Plan of Reorganization on February 26, 2025, and on March 6, 2025 commenced store-closing sales at all 790 locations. Rite Aid followed a parallel path, filing its second Chapter 11 on May 5, 2025, only seven months after exiting the prior case (U.S. Bankruptcy Court (New Jersey) Business).

One filing reset the consumer-data privacy landscape entirely: 23andMe Holding Co. filed voluntary Chapter 11 in the Eastern District of Missouri on March 23, 2025 (Case No. 25-40976, Judge Brian C. Walsh) (E.D. Mo. Bankr. — 23andMe opinion/order) (NPR — 23andMe bankruptcy and genetic-data privacy). Regeneron Pharmaceuticals signed an initial asset-purchase agreement on May 19, 2025 at $256 million, but the deal was superseded at auction. The eventual buyer was TTAM Research Institute, a nonprofit founded by 23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki, which completed the court-supervised acquisition on July 14, 2025 (SEC EDGAR — 23andMe Form 8-K, TTAM acquisition). The post-acquisition operating entity now appears in court records under the name Chrome Holding Co. (f/k/a 23andMe Holding Co.); bar dates for general claims and the cybersecurity-incident class continue to be administered (CA OAG — 23andMe consumer alert).

What's Actually In a Bankruptcy File on PACER

Open any Chapter 11 docket in 2026 and the same basic catalogue of documents will be there: a voluntary petition, schedules of assets and liabilities (Schedules A through H), a statement of financial affairs (the "SOFA"), a list of equity-holders, lists of the largest unsecured creditors, an affidavit in support of first-day motions, motions for cash management, DIP financing motions, motion to retain claims agent, employee compensation motions, utility motions, and — eventually — a plan of reorganization, a disclosure statement, and a claims register. The Big Lots docket on the court-approved claims-agent site, for instance, currently shows monthly operating reports for the chapter 11 debtors covering September 9, 2024 to November 9, 2025, filed by AlixPartners, with a hearing scheduled for January 29, 2026. Yellow Corporation's docket shows a confirmation hearing held November 5, 2025 and a confirmation order entered November 17, 2025, immediately followed by MFN's appeal filed November 18, 2025 D. Del. Bankr. — court information.

Beyond the claims-agent sites, the U.S. Courts national filings table tracks business bankruptcy volume by chapter and district: 24,039 business cases in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025 (up 5.6 percent from 22,762 the year before), with district-level breakdowns available via the AOUSC data tables (AOUSC — Bankruptcy Filings Increase 10.6 Percent) (U.S. Courts — filings data tables). PACER itself remains the system of record, with case lookups available through the federal court PACER Case Locator (U.S. Courts — PACER Case Locator).

For a major Chapter 11, the fastest free alternative is usually the claims agent site. Every large bankruptcy hires one of a small set of court-approved claims and noticing agents to maintain a public docket that mirrors the court file at no charge. These five firms appear as the interested parties in the Southern District of New York's standing order on claims and noticing agents, Case 1:22-mp-00401 (SDNY claims-agent docket) (SDNY claims agents). Major claims agents' 2024 acquisitions of commercial docket-research databases added a research layer that competes with paid Bankruptcy research services. (For Genesis Global, BlockFi, and Bed Bath & Beyond, prior claims-agent links were redirected after a vendor rebrand; the free alternative is to start from the bankruptcy court's official case page and follow the current claims-agent redirect.)

After Harrington: The Third-Party Release Question

The legal architecture of mass-tort Chapter 11 changed on June 27, 2024, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P., holding 5–4 that the Bankruptcy Code does not authorize a court to approve, as part of a plan of reorganization under Chapter 11, a release and injunction that effectively seeks to discharge claims against a non-debtor without the consent of the affected claimants (SCOTUS opinion 23-124) Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P., 603 U.S. 204 (2024) — slip op.. Harrington, reported as 603 U.S. 204 (2024), invalidated the original Purdue Pharma plan because it contained nonconsensual third-party releases protecting members of the Sackler family from civil opioid claims Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P., 603 U.S. 204 (2024).

The downstream effect of Harrington has been a forced redrafting of every pending mass-tort plan that depended on similar releases. Purdue's case was the most prominent example. After Harrington, the debtors filed a Thirteenth Amended Joint Chapter 11 Plan on March 18, 2025. On November 14, 2025, after three days of confirmation hearings, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean H. Lane stated that he would confirm the 2025 plan; the order followed shortly after, with the revised plan replacing nonconsensual third-party releases with an opt-in structure under which claimants can affirmatively elect releases of the Sacklers in exchange for their share of settlement consideration S.D.N.Y. Bankr. — cases information (NY AG — Purdue plan approval, Nov. 2025). The unsecured-creditors' filing of August 2025 disclosed a Sackler family contribution of up to $6.5 billion in exchange for settlement of civil claims, with an additional approximately $900 million contributed by Purdue itself toward the overall $7.4 billion opioid-settlement package (Willkie — Purdue Pharma confirms Chapter 11 plan) (NPR — Sacklers reach new $7.4 billion opioid settlement) (VeritaGlobal — Purdue Pharma creditors).

The Boy Scouts of America Chapter 11 — confirmed before Purdue but appealed through 2024 and 2025 — survived the post-Harrington review. The BSA plan went effective April 19, 2023, establishing the Scouting Settlement Trust to administer abuse claims (Scouting Settlement Trust — official site). The Third Circuit largely upheld the confirmation order in a decision issued September 2025 (U.S. Courts), and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals challenging the BSA confirmation in January 2026, clearing the way for distributions to proceed under the existing plan structure (D. Del. court update). According to the most recent Trust update, the insurance contributions total approximately $1.65 billion, with future distribution percentages still being calculated (Krause and Kinsman — BSA litigation update, Feb. 2026).

The most consequential post-Harrington casualty has been Johnson & Johnson's "Texas two-step" strategy. Red River Talc LLC, a J&J subsidiary, filed a voluntary prepackaged Chapter 11 in the Southern District of Texas on September 20, 2024 (Case No. 24-90505) (Epiq — Red River Talc case information). The case sought to resolve all current and future ovarian-cancer talc claims through a $9 billion settlement trust, with J&J having solicited votes on the prepackaged plan from over 90,000 claimants before the filing. On March 31, 2025, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez denied confirmation, and the case was dismissed. J&J announced on March 31, 2025 that it would return to the tort system, reversing approximately $7 billion in previously reserved settlement amounts (J&J — statement on return to tort system). Red River was J&J's third bankruptcy attempt, after the prior LTL Management filings were dismissed as bad-faith filings; the Third Circuit's prior dismissals had already cast doubt on the Texas two-step structure even before Harrington sealed the strategy's fate Third Circuit — In re LTL Management LLC opinion.

Lower courts since Harrington have split on a related question: whether opt-out third-party releases (where claimants are bound unless they affirmatively object) qualify as "consensual" under the Supreme Court's framework. Appeals on that question are currently pending in the Second and Fifth Circuits, with the Third Circuit having dismissed appeals challenging the Boy Scouts confirmation plan in May 2025. Some practitioners have suggested Chapter 15 may serve as a residual path for non-consensual third-party releases where they have been approved by a foreign bankruptcy court — alongside legislative proposals such as the Nondebtor Release Prohibition Act (S. 3424 — Nondebtor Release Prohibition Act). Recent decisions in Delaware and the Southern District of New York have applied that exception.

Subchapter V — Small-Business Bankruptcy Whiplash

The Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 (SBRA) created a streamlined Chapter 11 track for small-business debtors, codified as Subchapter V, effective February 19, 2020 (Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal) (S.D. Fla. Bankruptcy Court). Subchapter V eliminates the unsecured creditors' committee by default, shortens deadlines for filing a plan, and permits debtors to retain equity without paying unsecured creditors in full — a meaningful relaxation of Chapter 11's absolute-priority rule, available to qualifying small debtors only.

The eligibility threshold has been a moving target. Congress increased the debt limit to $7.5 million in March 2020 as part of COVID-era relief, then extended it through a series of two-year sunsets. The Bankruptcy Threshold Adjustment and Technical Corrections Act (S. 3823, 117th Congress) extended the higher limit for two more years (Congress.gov). That extension sunset on June 21, 2024, dropping the Subchapter V debt limit back to the statutory baseline of $3,024,725 (C.D. Cal. Bankruptcy Court) (E.D. Va. Bankruptcy Court). The statutory baseline was then adjusted upward through the routine three-year § 104 inflation adjustment.

As of January 1, 2026, the Subchapter V debt limit stands at $3,424,000 DOJ USTP — Subchapter V. Legislation to restore the $7.5 million limit was reintroduced and is described in industry summaries as proposing to "reinstate the debt limit for Subchapter V eligibility at $7,500,000, from its current inflation-adjusted $3,424,000". New bankruptcy legislation introduced in 2026 takes another run at the same problem.

For practitioners, the sunset matters: a Subchapter V case filed before June 21, 2024 may have proceeded under a $7.5 million ceiling that no longer applies to cases filed afterward, and judges have noted that comparing pre- and post-sunset cases "may have limited utility" given the different debtor pools (S.D. Ohio Bankruptcy opinion).

Crypto Bankruptcies — A Long, Slow Distribution Tail

The crypto bankruptcies that defined 2022–2023 are now in their distribution phase. The headline figure for 2026 is FTX. According to the official PR Newswire release from the FTX Recovery Trust, FTX distributed approximately $2.2 billion to creditors on March 31, 2026, as its fourth distribution since the case was filed D. Del. Bankr. — FTX Trading Ltd. Case 22-11068 distribution docket. The Record Date for that distribution was set as February 14, 2026 D. Del. Bankr. — court information. FTX's prior distributions were $1.2 billion in February 2025 (initial Convenience Class) (PR Newswire, Feb. 2025) and over $5 billion on May 30, 2025 D. Del. Bankr. — FTX Trading Ltd. Case 22-11068. Preferred-equity holders have a separately scheduled May 29, 2026 payment date D. Del. Bankr. — FTX Trading Ltd. Case 22-11068. Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $11 billion on March 28, 2024 (DOJ press release).

Celsius Network's case has produced four distributions totaling well over $2.5 billion. Roughly 251,000 of 372,000 eligible creditors (about 68%) from 165 countries had received their initial distributions by August 2024 (Stretto — Celsius Plan Administrator First Status Report, Aug. 2024). A third distribution of approximately $220 million, representing approximately 4.5% of each eligible claim, went live in August 2025; the fourth distribution of approximately $344.4 million began in February 2026 (Stretto — Celsius Fourth Distribution information page). Celsius founder Alexander Mashinsky pleaded guilty on December 3, 2024 before U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl and was sentenced to 12 years in prison on May 8, 2025 for fraud and market manipulation (DOJ S.D.N.Y. — Mashinsky sentencing).

BlockFi's wind-down had distributed approximately $1.5 billion to customers by mid-2025, with Convenience Class participants entitled to a 50% distribution on allowed claims, up to $1,500 in USD or CAD (Kroll — BlockFi Distributions case-information site). Voyager Digital's second distribution in July 2024 totaled approximately $589 million, or 34.28% for eligible creditors; as of April 30, 2025 the plan administrator reported that approximately 86% of distribution checks totaling roughly $573 million had been successfully deposited (Invest Voyager — claim portal). Genesis Global Capital's confirmed wind-down plan targets approximately $3 billion in customer distributions, with a Memorandum of Decision relating to Gemini Trust signed January 13, 2026 (SDNY Bankruptcy Court). New York Attorney General Letitia James secured a settlement worth $2 billion from Genesis in May 2024 (N.Y. OAG).

Mt. Gox remains the outlier. The Tokyo-based exchange's rehabilitation trustee extended the creditor repayment deadline another year on October 27, 2025, pushing the final repayment date to October 31, 2026 (the case is a Japanese civil rehabilitation, not a U.S. bankruptcy) (Mt. Gox — official rehabilitation trustee site) (CoinDesk — Mt. Gox delays creditor repayment to October 2026). The postponement was announced four days before the prior October 31, 2025 deadline, marking the third such delay since 2023.

The Texas Southern District After Judge Jones

The Southern District of Texas bankruptcy court has been at the center of a multi-year reckoning over judicial ethics. Judge David R. Jones, who was appointed Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of Texas effective May 6, 2015 (S.D. Tex. court page), resigned on November 15, 2023, after a Fifth Circuit ethics inquiry began following an October 13, 2023 misconduct complaint filed by attorney Michael Van Deelen (Uiowa University). According to the Fifth Circuit Judicial Council's order concluding the complaint, Jones submitted his letter of resignation on October 16, 2023, effective November 15, 2023 (Fifth Circuit Judicial Council). The underlying allegations involved a years-long undisclosed romantic relationship with bankruptcy attorney Elizabeth Freeman, formerly of the Jackson Walker law firm (Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal — disclosure failures) (UNLV Boyd Law — Jones downfall analysis). The Fifth Circuit found probable cause that Jones committed serious ethical violations before he resigned U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit. In a December 2024 ruling reported by news reporting, Jackson Walker lost a privilege fight tied to internal communications about the relationship (UT Austin Ethics Unwrapped — Jones case study). The U.S. Trustee has called for federal bankruptcy judges in Houston to reassess case assignments going forward.

The Red River Talc dismissal — issued by Judge Christopher Lopez rather than Jones — represented in part a reset of the Southern District of Texas's reputation as a permissive forum for novel mass-tort restructurings. Jones had historically been associated with high-profile cases that drew structural critique from creditor groups, and the dismissal of J&J's third bankruptcy attempt has been read as evidence that the post-Jones court is not interested in extending the strategy that had drawn cases to Houston in the first place (University of Chicago Business Law Review).

Diocesan and Other Mass-Tort Filings

Diocesan bankruptcies continue. The Diocese of Buffalo reached a monetary settlement of $150 million with survivors of clergy sexual abuse, announced April 22, 2025 by the diocese; insurance contributions have since brought the global settlement to approximately $315 million as of March 2026 (Diocese of Buffalo) Diocese of Buffalo — $150 million settlement announcement. The Diocese fulfilled its Chapter 11 reorganization plan filing in October 2025 with the $150 million settlement-trust funding component formally included (Diocese of Buffalo).

The Diocese of Rockville Centre finalized a $323 million settlement in December 2024, with the bankruptcy plan signed off by Chief Judge Martin Glenn (EWTN News — court approves $323 million abuse settlement). The Diocese had earlier offered roughly $200 million in November 2023, which survivors rejected before negotiations resumed and produced the final $323 million figure (Bishop-Accountability — Rockville Centre $323M settlement). The Diocese of Albany reached a separate $148 million settlement on March 27, 2026, characterized by Bishop Mark O'Connell as "an important first step in forming a Chapter 11 plan" (Diocese of Albany) (Spectrum Local News — Albany Diocese settlement).

Alex Jones's bankruptcy is in a different category, but it occupies the same docket-tracker as the diocesan cases. Jones declared bankruptcy after Sandy Hook families won more than $1.4 billion in defamation damages (NPR). The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Jones's appeal of the $1.4 billion judgment in October 2025 (PBS NewsHour). The Onion's complicated effort to acquire Infowars's intellectual property through a state-court license deal continued into April 2026; under a proposal submitted that month, The Onion would license Infowars for $81,000 per month, in a Travis County District Court action that runs parallel to the bankruptcy (Washington Times — Onion-Infowars $81,000/mo licensing motion, Travis County). A federal judge ruled in May 2026 that Jones had "no standing" to appeal the order placing Free Speech Systems in receivership, and an earlier May ruling blocked Jones's bid to shield Infowars from liquidation S.D. Tex. Bankr. — Free Speech Systems receivership U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. Infowars shut down operations in early May 2026.

Asbestos Trusts and the Long Tail of 524(g)

Section 524(g) of the Bankruptcy Code, enacted to permit channeling injunctions in asbestos cases, remains the structural template for mass-tort trust resolutions even after Harrington. The provision creates a special procedure for debtors previously engaged in the sale or production of asbestos-containing products to channel current and future claims to a settlement trust (St. John's Law). The Owens Corning / Fibreboard Asbestos Personal Injury Trust, formed October 31, 2006 as a result of the bankruptcy of Owens Corning and its wholly owned subsidiary, is one example of the long-running infrastructure that 524(g) created.

Industry trackers of asbestos trust funds report over $30 billion remains across active trusts as of 2026, with more than 60 trusts still paying claims (Mesothelioma Lawyer Center — 2026 asbestos trust payouts list) (Simmons Hanly Conroy — asbestos trust funds, April 2026 update). The most recent comprehensive federal study of the trust system, GAO-11-819, dates to 2011 and is not a current dollar-total source. Trust payment percentages adjust regularly: the ACandS Asbestos Settlement Trust payment percentage was reduced in May 2026 (from 3.2% to 2.89%), with the APG Asbestos Trust (A.P. Green Industries) issuing a similar adjustment in April 2026 — both percentage changes documented on the trusts' own official notice pages (ACandS Asbestos Settlement Trust — official notices).

Private Equity in 2025's Largest Bankruptcies

Private-equity sponsorship sits behind a majority of the year's largest cases. PESP (Private Equity Stakeholder Project) found that private equity firms played a role in 51% (21 of 41) of large U.S. corporate bankruptcies in 2025 — defined as bankruptcies with liabilities of $500 million or more (PESP). A later, more detailed PESP analysis put the figure at 54% of the largest U.S. bankruptcies in 2025, including 71% of major retail failures (PESP). Industry analyses observed that overall U.S. bankruptcy filings for private equity-backed companies dropped in 2025 relative to the immediate post-pandemic peak, even as the modest growth in overall filings was expected to continue in 2026 as interest rates remained high by historic standards. Joann's collapse, for instance, occurred under Leonard Green and Partners' ownership, with the chain reporting over $1 billion in debt at the time of its March 2024 bankruptcy (PESP, Mar. 2025).

How to Actually Pull a Bankruptcy File in 2026

For most users the workflow is:

The schedule numbering is consistent across every Chapter 11 in the country. Schedule A/B lists assets, real and personal. Schedule D lists secured creditors. Schedules E/F list unsecured creditors with priority status (E) and general unsecured (F). Schedule G lists executory contracts and unexpired leases — this is where you find the customer agreements, vendor relationships, and real estate leases that will be assumed or rejected during the case. Schedule H lists co-debtors. The Statement of Financial Affairs (SOFA), filed alongside the schedules, contains a four-year look-back at payments to insiders, transfers, lawsuits, and gifts — historically a rich source for forensic accountants and journalists. The claims register, maintained by the claims agent, lists every proof of claim filed against the debtor with attached documentation. For Big Lots specifically, the claims register and full schedule set are maintained by Kroll Restructuring Administration as court-approved claims agent for Case No. 24-11967 (D. Del.) (Kroll — Big Lots claims-agent docket).

What's Pending

Several Chapter 11 cases of significance remain in active proceedings as of May 2026 and will produce additional dockets and orders through year-end. Saks Global expects to exit Chapter 11 in June 2026. Yellow Corp's plan confirmation order, entered November 17, 2025, is on appeal by MFN as of November 18, 2025 (Teamsters). The Diocese of El Paso, having filed March 6, 2026, is in its early-case-administration phase. Mt. Gox's October 31, 2026 final repayment deadline approaches. Spirit Airlines's wind-down hearings, opened May 5, 2026, will produce months of further filings. The Subchapter V debt-limit restoration bill remains pending in Congress, and could change small-business eligibility mid-year. Watch-list retailers identified in industry analyses include J. Crew and Guitar Center.