Public Access to Court Electronic Records (pacer) System

The Judiciary Electronic Public Access Program provides court information to the public at a reasonable cost as directed by Congress to recoup program costs through user fees. The Electronic Public Access Fee Schedule at uscourts.gov lists fees set by the Judicial Conference. The program generated approximately $65 million in FY 2007 through the CM/ECF Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system.

	If not for the PACER Service Center, tens of thousands of customer calls each year would be directed to the courts.

The PACER Service Center (PSC) provides centralized billing, registration, and technical support services for the Judiciary and the public. PACER registrations reached a new milestone during 2007, surpassing 750,000 user accounts. PACER customers include members of the bar; city, state, and federal employees; and the general public. In addition to collecting fees, PSC support staff established over 120,000 new accounts, fielded more than 120,000 help desk calls, and responded to almost 30,000 support e-mails. If not for the PSC, these communications would be directed to the courts. The operational cost of the PSC has consistently remained a small fraction of the revenue—in 2007, only 4.52 percent.

The PSC generates and provides a duplicate Social Security Number/Tax Information Number Report to bankruptcy courts, and has completed development of the centralized filer registration and maintenance program for the Appellate CM/ECF courts. The Eighth Circuit was the first court to go live with this program and, to date, has registered more than 5,000 attorneys.

In FY 2007, the Electronic Public Access Program initiated two pilot projects endorsed by the Judicial Conference to expand electronic public access to case information. The 12-month Digital Audio Pilot is studying the feasibility of including digital audio files of court proceedings in the CM/ECF system and making them available through PACER. Five courts are participating in this pilot: the Eastern District of North Carolina Bankruptcy Court, the Northern District of Alabama Bankruptcy Court, the District of Maine Bankruptcy Court, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the District of Nebraska. A Government Printing Office pilot that will run for no more than two years in 16 federal deposit libraries and the Library of Congress, will assess the merits of providing PACER access to the public in Federal Depository Libraries free-of-charge.

	PACER Actual Revenue PACER provides court information to the general public at a reasonable cost as directed by Congress. PACER Actual Revenue 1999-2007 In Millions 1999 $ 13,732 2000 $ 12,980 2001 $ 12,111 2002 $ 17,651 2003 $ 27,459 2004 $ 37,645 2005 $ 46,104 2006 $ 62,118 2007 $65,036

	New PACER Customers by Year      New PACER Customers 1999-2007 (projected)   1999 11,738 2000 31,674 2001 58,951 2002 77,121 2003 92,350 2004 104,184 2005 123,538 2006 119,312 2007 124,735