[equivocates]

The RECAP project is a great project, and highly recommend its use.

But PACER charges 10 cents per page for access and I don't have a problem with that. These fees keep the federal courts open to do vital business when Congress decides it's a good time for a shutdown. Any complaints re: PACER fees should be directed to Congress.

[nkw]

There are much better ways for the judiciary to maintain their finances than relying on arbitrary non-cost based fees for public access to public information. Judiciary funding is around $7 billion/year. Pacer makes maybe $150 million/year. Agree that Congress should fix Pacer fees, but the judiciary is not free from blame here.

[patentatt]

I agree. I think it’s a travesty all court documents aren’t mandated to be freely accessible.

[GhettoMaestro]

Sorry - that’s a bullshit argument. Because our government sucks at budgeting, we will just slap on some more fees to the end user? Total workaround and creating more issues than it is solving.

Every public court document should be available as a PDF for free of cost. No exceptions.

[mlissner]

I (the director of Free Law Project) agree with a lot of the other responses here, but I'll just add two points. First, technically PACER isn't a website. If you ask the judiciary, they'll tell you that PACER is only the public access system. So it's nuts that it rakes in $150M/year considering that Congress said they can only charge money for PACER to the extent it pays for itself. All of us that work on / use / think about PACER need to reframe this in our minds. PACER is not a website! (We're as guilty of this as anybody.) So...how much should it cost to run a basic credential system?

The second point is this: When should the gov't charge fees for services? Should cops cost money when they come help you? Schools? Yes, the fees help the gov't survive when Congress can't set a budget, but is that worth it or should our basic legal documents be freely available just like the courthouse itself is?

[gpm]

Congress did fix Pacer fees. They were very clear that they should pay for nothing but Pacer.

The courts ignored them and started robbing us.

[eli]

C'mon. I don't think PACER should ever charge fees to access the laws of the land, but I could probably compromise on $0.10 a page only during a shutdown.