The Feds Make a Killing by Overcharging for Electronic Court Records – Reason.com
peter.suber's bookmarks 2019-04-23
Summary:
"If you want to find a federal court case—say, to look up the latest juicy filing in the prosecution of one of Donald Trump's indicted cronies—odds are you'll hold your nose and log on to the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) website, a system run by the federal judiciary.
It's an old and clunky platform, running on the best interface the mid-1990s had to offer. Which might be excusable if it were free, but it's not.
PACER charges 10 cents a page for court records and searches. There's a $3 cap on large documents, and users pay nothing if their bill is under $15 per quarter. This keeps most casual users from needing to pony up—but for news organizations, researchers, and legal professionals, costs can pile up quickly...."