Home » Posts tagged 'pacer' (Page 5)
Tag Archives: pacer
Report: PACER Federal Court Record Fees Exceed System Costs
Here's a disturbing report about PACER -- the Public Access to Court Electronic Records -- published yesterday by California Watch, the CA arm of the Center for Investigative Reporting: "PACER Federal Court Record Fees Exceed System Costs". Shane Shifflett and Jennifer Gollan, California Watch. While the report notes that Senator Lieberman and AALL have been trying to persuade the Administrative Office of the US Courts, it should also be noted that other library associations have been in on this fight for quite a while including the Depository Library Council to the US Public Printer and ALA's Government Documents Round Table (GODORT). Along with official calls for free access to US court documents, there's also been a grassroots effort to wrest control of these public domain documents in the form of RECAP (that's PACER backwards ;-)), a firefox plugin built by the fine folks at the Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) at Princeton University. The plugin automatically donates purchased PACER documents into a public repository hosted by the Internet Archive. Perhaps this report along with official calls from politicians and librarians will be enough to finally get the Administrative Office of the US Courts to fix PACER and offer free access to US Court documents as it should be!
The federal government has collected millions from the online Public Access to Court Electronic Records system, or PACER – nearly five times what it cost to run the system. Between fiscal years 2006 and 2010, the government collected an average of $77 million a year from PACER fees, according to the most recent federal figures available... In recent years, U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and the American Association of Law Libraries, which represents 5,000 law librarians nationwide, have tried without success to persuade the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and members of Congress to provide free access to PACER records. Earlier this year, the Center for Investigative Reporting, parent organization of The Bay Citizen, applied for a limited exemption from PACER fees to research potential judicial conflicts in California. Such fee waivers are typically given to academics and nonprofits “to avoid unreasonable burdens and to promote public access to information.” CIR is a nonprofit organization.[HT to Gary Price at InfoDocket for alerting us to this report!] Continue reading
PACER Fee Increase To Take Effect April 1, 2012
From USCourts.gov: An increase in the electronic public access (EPA) fee, from eight cents to 10 cents per page, will take effect on April 1, 2012. Earlier this month, the Judicial Conference of the United States authorized an increase in the federal judiciary’s electronic public access fee in response to increasing costs for maintaining and enhancing the electronic public access system. [Clip] Local, state and federal government agencies will be exempted from the increase for three years. Moreover, PACER users who do not accrue charges of more than $15 in a quarterly billing cycle would not be charged a fee. (The current exemption is $10 per quarter.) The expanded exemption means that 75 to 80 percent of all users will still pay no fee. Continue reading
PACER Adds 3,000 Accounts Weekly in FY2011
From USCourts.gov: More than 160,000 new accounts in the federal judiciary’s Public Access to Electronic Court Records (PACER) service were established in fiscal year 2011. That’s an average of more than 3,000 new accounts each week. [Clip] The PACER service center, located in San Antonio, responded to about 165,000 telephone calls and about 42,000 emails in FY 2011. More than one-third of the existing 1.3 million PACER accounts were active over the course of the fiscal year that ends September 30, 2011. (via INFOdocket) Continue reading
PACER Fee (and Exemption) Increase
[Update: 9/15/11: One of my colleagues, who is preparing to teach a class on PACER, called the PACER Service Center to verify the date of the fee increase. She was told "April 2012." I then called and was told "the spring billing cycle." I suggested that information be posted on the web site, since the press release implies a much earlier date. -prj] The Judicial Conference of the United States today
authorized an increase in the Judiciary's electronic public access fee in response to increasing costs for maintaining and enhancing the electronic public access system. The increase in the electronic public access (EPA) fee, from $.08 to $.10 per, is needed to continue to support and improve the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system, and to develop and implement the next generation of the Judiciary's Case Management/Electronic Case Filing system.but
The Conference was mindful of the impact such an increase could have on other public entities and on public users accessing the system to obtain information on a particular case. For this reason, local, state, and federal government agencies will be exempted from the increase for three years. Moreover, PACER users who do not accrue charges of more than $15 in a quarterly billing cycle would not be charged a fee. (The current exemption is $10 per quarter.) The expanded exemption means that 75 to 80 percent of all users will still pay no fees.The fee increase is effective November 1, 2011. FGI readers might also be interested in the first part of the press release - the approval of standards and procedures for sealing civil case files. For more, see The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times, "Judicial Conference Urges Restraint in Sealing Civil Cases." Thanks to my colleague, Mary Whisner, for the tip. Continue reading
Latest Comments