What is PACER?
Public Access to Court Electronic
Records (PACER) is an electronic public access service
that allows users to obtain case and docket information from
Federal Appellate, District and Bankruptcy courts, and from the
U.S. Party/Case Index.
Currently most courts are available on the Internet.
Links
to these courts are
provided from this web site. However, a few systems are not
available on the Internet and must be dialed directly using
communication software (such as ProComm Plus, pcAnywhere, or
Hyperterminal) and a modem.
Electronic access is available for most courts by
registering
with the PACER Service
Center, the judiciary's centralized registration, billing, and
technical support center.
Each court maintains its own databases with case information. Because PACER database systems are maintained within each court, each jurisdiction will have a different URL or modem number. Accessing and querying information from each service is comparable; however, the format and content of information provided may differ slightly. Links and toll free modem numbers are provided to most jurisdictions.
PACER is a service of United States Judiciary. The PACER Service Center is run by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.
Why use PACER?
The PACER System offers an inexpensive, fast, and comprehensive
case information service to any individual with a personal computer
(PC) and Internet access. The PACER system permits you to request
information about a particular individual or case. The data is
displayed directly on your PC screen within a few seconds. The
system is simple enough that little user training or documentation
is required.
Available Information
The PACER System offers electronic access to case dockets to retrieve
information such as:
A listing of all parties and
participants including judges, attorneys, and trustees
A compilation of case related information such as cause of
action,
nature of suit, and
dollar demand
A chronology of dates of case events entered in the
case record
A claims registry
A listing of new cases each day
Appellate court opinions
Judgments or case status
Types of documents filed for certain cases
Many courts offer imaged copies of documents
U.S. Party/Case Index
The U.S.
Party/Case Index
is a national index for U.S. district,
bankruptcy, and appellate courts. A small subset of information
from each case will be transferred to the
U.S. Party/Case
Index
each night. The system serves as a locator index for PACER.
You may conduct nationwide searches to determine whether or not
a party is involved in federal litigation. For detailed information
on cases found while searching the
U.S. Party/Case
Index, you will
need to visit the PACER site for the particular jurisdiction
where the case is located.
Availability
The PACER System is available days, nights, and weekends. You can
verify all updates to active and recently closed cases without
having to make repeated trips to the court to review paper records.
If there have been no updates, this can be confirmed in seconds.
What you need
A personal computer
For Internet PACER:
Internet access
Javascript enabled web browser
For Dial-up PACER:
A 9600 or higher baud modem
Terminal emulation software that supports VT100 emulation
Cost
The United States Congress has given the Judicial Conference
of the United States, the judicial governing body of the U.S.
Federal Courts, authority to impose user fees for electronic
access to case information.
For a history of the electronic public access fee and a current
electronic public access fee schedule,
click here.
All registered agencies or individuals
will be charged a user fee. Access to web based PACER systems
will generate a $.07 per
page
charge. The per page charge applies to the number of pages that
results from any search, including a search that yields no matches
(one page for no matches.) The charge applies whether or not pages
are printed, viewed, or downloaded. Access to dial-up PACER
systems will generate a $.60 per minute charge. Users will NOT
incur both per minute and per page charges for a PACER session.
You will be billed on a quarterly basis for your transactions.
You will be allowed to enter a client code of your choosing each
time you login to PACER to help facilitate managing the costs.
A measure was approved by the Judicial Conference of the United States in March 2001 stating that no fee is owed until a user accrues more than $10 worth of charges in a calendar year. Consequently, if an account does not accrue $10 worth of usage between January 1st and December 31st each year, all balances will be deleted from our records. This policy change will be effective for the calendar year of 2001, and statements will not be mailed to PACER users whose accounts do not have a balance due of at least $10. Once the balance due exceeds $10, a user will receive a statement by mail which includes the current and previous charges in a calendar year. Please read the announcement detailing this change.
The Judicial Conference, at its September 2003 session, amended the language of Section I of the Electronic Public Access Fee Schedule for the appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts, the United States Court of Federal Claims, and the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (adopted by the Judicial Conference pursuant to sections 1913, 1914, 1926, 1930, and 1932 of title 28, United States Code). The previous schedule placed a cap on the seven cents per page charge for Internet access to data obtained electronically from the public records of individual cases in the courts, with a maximum $2.10, the equivalent of 30 pages, for electronic access to any single document. The amendment extends this cap to all case documents, including docket sheets and case-specific reports, with the exception of transcripts of federal court proceedings. The cap will apply to all PACER, RACER, or CM/ECF sites. For example: previously, a 50 page document cost $3.50 at 7 cents a page. This same document now only costs $2.10. Users will receive the entire 50 page document but only be charged $2.10. Each attachment in CM/ECF sites is considered a separate document. Therefore, the cap will apply to each attachment over 30 pages separately.
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