The Problem
PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) charges $0.10 per page to access federal court documents -- including bankruptcy filings, civil cases, and criminal proceedings. These are public records, created by the public's courts, paid for by taxpayers' filing fees.
The fee system generates over $150 million annually -- far more than needed to operate the PACER system. This surplus is used to fund other court technology projects, creating a perverse incentive to maintain fees.
Who It Hurts
Researchers: Studying court outcomes at scale requires accessing thousands of cases. At $0.10/page, a single research project can cost thousands of dollars. This prices out independent researchers, journalists, and advocacy organizations.
Pro se litigants: People representing themselves in court must pay to access their own case documents and review relevant precedent. This disproportionately affects low-income individuals.
Public accountability: The public cannot effectively monitor court operations when basic data costs money to access.
The Legal Issue
The E-Government Act of 2002 mandates that PACER fees be limited to amounts necessary to cover the cost of providing the service. The courts have acknowledged that fees far exceed this threshold but continue charging. Multiple lawsuits (including National Veterans Legal Services Program v. United States) have challenged the fee structure.
Reform Efforts
The Free Law Project's RECAP extension archives PACER documents for free public access. The Open Courts Act (introduced multiple times in Congress) would eliminate most PACER fees. Our own PACER usage data shows the true cost of accessing court records for research.
We donated 492 cases and 3,007 files to the RECAP archive. Every case we access benefits future researchers.
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Last updated: April 2026. Not legal advice.
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