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https://www.politico.com/magazine/amp/story/2019/03/20/pacer-court-records-225821
But I'm here to tell you that PACER—Public Access to Court Electronic Records—is a judicially approved scam. The very name is misleading: Limiting the public's access by charging hefty fees, it has been a scam since it was launched and, barring significant structural changes, will be a scam forever.
Somewhat old but still relevant today.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 14 2019, @09:31AM (3 children)
10c per page is excessive for a PDF dump.why isn't it free?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @05:06AM
Because it is a monopoly. They get to set whatever prices they want. There are lawsuits trying to get various fees struck down as violating various Federal Laws and the Constitution, and they have actually been fairly successful in the lower courts. However, you are basically SoL until the appeals are exhausted because none of the courts have granted injunctions beyond allowing indigents, charities, researchers, and a select few to get fees waived.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday September 16 2019, @12:49AM (1 child)
That's the only reason to charge, and the only reason I find reasonable. You allude to it being still on paper or microfilm, and a clerk needing to get it into PDF form. I can then see the public paying for the conversion over time in a on-demand fashion.
If the court's systems are already paper free, or everything is completely scanned as a matter of law, then the public has already paid to get this into a database accessible form via a website. The website they could charge us for again, but then all access to documents already online needs to be free.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 16 2019, @02:02AM
Nope, PACER only goes back to roughly 1999-2002, depending on when the particular court in question instituted electronic filing. If you want a paper copy of something earlier, the most common methods, of which there are a few others, are: you can order it from the FCR for $64 and then pay any copy fees you need, get copies sent to you for $0.50 per page plus postage, or have them scan it into electronic form for $31 and then pay the normal access fee. You have to do the math to see what would end up being cheaper for you in a particular case, and in rarer ones, sometimes one of the less common methods ones are better.