Want to look up a federal-court case, read the indictment or lawsuit, evaluate what the prosecutor and the defense attorney had to say, or review a judge's decision?
Everyone now has access to many federal court documents, and you don't have to be an attorney or a court reporter to access them. The documents are in a system called "PACER," which stands for Public Access to Court Electronic Records.
Just go to pacer.gov and register.
Documents cost 10 cents per page, with a maximum charge of $3 per document, although the cap does not apply to name searches, reports that are not case-specific and transcripts of federal court proceedings.
Best of all, for the occasional user, you will not owe a fee unless your account accrues more than $15 of usage in a given quarter. If you accrue less than $15, your fees are waived for that quarter. Federal court opinions on PACER are free.
Three-fourths of PACER users do not pay fees for access because their usage does not meet the billing threshold.
"The PACER program operates entirely on user fees," says Karen Redmond, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Court Administration in Washington, D.C.
The system was authorized by Congress in 1991. "It was a gradual rollout to district courts and bankruptcy courts," Redmond said. "By 2007 it was nearly universal."