Intellectual Property Law

Public Access to Court Electronic Records- PACER

By IBLS Editor

Public Access to Court Electronic Records- PACER

The United States Judiciary implemented a program called ?Pacer? (?Public Access to Court Electronic Records?), to provide users with public access to case and docket information from Federal Appellate, District and Bankruptcy courts.   Pacer offers user-friendly federal case information to any person, not only attorneys, with an Internet connection and previous payment of a fee. Pacer is an implementation of the E-Government Act of 2002 that states: ?each court shall make any document that is filed electronically publicly available online.? The program is administered by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts and is deemed to be the land marking program for U.S. courts? information service.  Indeed, experts predict in this electronic and environmentally conscious era, electronic access will be the only way to acquire federal and state case information.  Following, there is a summary of the services offered by the Pacer program.

Any individual with a PC and internet connection may register on the Pacer main page and access individuals? and case information on Federal appellate, District and Bankruptcy courts.  There is no charge for the registration. Yet, users must be a US$0.8 per page extracted, viewed, printed, downloaded.  The page length is based on a mathematical formula that calculates the bytes pulled out.  Some government organizations and others specifically designated are exempted from this payment.   Once registered, users will be billed in a quarterly basis.  According to the program guidelines, users may be able to obtain the following data:

1. ?A listing of all parties and participants including judges, attorneys, and trustees
2. A compilation of case related information such as cause of action, nature of suit, and dollar demand
3. A chronology of dates of case events entered in the case record
4. A claims registry
5. A listing of new cases each day
6. Appellate court opinions
7. Judgments or case status
8. Types of documents filed for certain cases
9. Imaged copies of documents.?

Even though Pacer has been in force for over four years, it is constantly evolving.  In fact, the Judicial Conference of December 2007 ordered important modifications to this program regarding privacy issues.   For instance, these federal case records may not display the following information: Social Security and taxpayer identification numbers, names of minor children, financial account numbers, dates of birth, and, in criminal cases, home addresses.  Additionally, the E-government Act of 2002 expressly excluded from the case file and electronic view the next court documents, which obviously are not offered by Pacer:

1. ? unexecuted summonses or warrants of any kind (e.g., search warrants, arrest
warrants);
2.  pretrial bail or presentence investigation reports;
3.  statements of reasons in the judgment of conviction;
4.  juvenile records;
5.  documents containing identifying information about jurors or potential jurors;
6.  financial affidavits in seeking representation under the Criminal Justice Act;
7.  ex parte requests for authorization of investigative, expert or other services
pursuant to the Criminal Justice Act; and
8.  sealed documents (e.g., motions for downward departure for substantial
assistance, plea agreements indicating cooperation).?

Electronic access to federal court cases was ordered by the E-government Act at a time where no conscious safeguards for privacy issues were implemented.  Yet, this government services has improved and adopted important privacy protective measures.  Those cases made electronically available under former guidelines do not require revision by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.  Thus, it is up to the affected parties to request possible revision of their ?electronically available? federal case as to omit sensitive private information.    

Although the administration of Pacer is centralized, access to specific court records requires visiting the home page of the appropriate federal court.   

Full post as published by IBLS Internet Law Blog on February 11, 2008 (boomark / email).