Free PACER Searches Coming! Federal Judiciary Boldly Steps Into Early 2000s!

// Move over “Free Hugs,” there’s a new slogan capturing the hearts and minds of America’s youth: “Free PACER Searches.”

Probably not, but work with me here.

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Reuters reports that a new report from the Judicial Conference confirms that the government’s database of electronically filed documents will move — tentatively — into this millennium! And, as legislators finally started standing up to the nonsense, the federal judiciary is agreeing to go ahead and make PACER searches free when it finishes overhauling its atrocious mess of a system.

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Remember when large searches of, say, a whole 50 PAGES might slow the internet to a crawl and only a 10 cent per page search fee could possibly prevent chaos overtaking the judiciary? Yeah, neither does anyone else at this point.

A newly released report on the Judicial Conference of the United States’ closed-door March 15 meeting showed that the policymaking body greenlighted making PACER searches free for non-commercial users in any future overhauls of the system.

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How will the judiciary possibly survive this concession? Remember, in sworn testimony before Congress representatives of the judiciary claimed that offering access to public court documents for *gulp* free would cost $2 billion and bankrupt the judiciary.

The answer, as we knew at the time, is that this was always totally made up. And a little extra sketchy because, as the Federal Circuit pointed out, the fees collected through PACER were siphoned off to unauthorized purposes. But what’s a little slush fund among friends?

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There is a bit of a catch still. While the new free search system will become part of the judiciary’s future overhaul, they’re not necessarily giving up on fees entirely according to Reuters:

Downloading documents likewise costs $0.10 per page with a cap of $3 per document, excluding transcripts. The judiciary did not approve removing charges for downloads.

Well, there’s always the next overhaul in 2075 or so.

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Fed judiciary says yes to free PACER searches. Here are the details so far [Reuters]

Earlier: Free PACER Would Cost $2B And Other Completely Made Up Garbage The Federal Judiciary Is Peddling
US Contemplates Joining 21st Century As Free PACER Bill Advances Out Of Judiciary Committee
Appeals Court Confirms What You Already Knew: PACER Is A Rip-Off
Why The Federal Circuit’s PACER Ruling Is A Mixed Bag

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Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

Topics

Courts, PACER, Technology