Judiciary Approves Funding for Case Management and Public Access Modernization

To fund the accelerated initiative to modernize and strengthen the security of its case management and public access system, the Judiciary is implementing a modest temporary increase in fees for electronic access to court records beginning on Jan. 1, 2027.

To date, the extensive work on this top-priority initiative has been funded almost exclusively with existing fee collections along with focused budget belt-tightening by the Judiciary. But existing fee collections are insufficient to cover the remaining phases of developing the new case management system, which is critical to the secure operation of the federal courts. 

“Raising user fees, even temporarily, is a last resort,” said Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr., Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and Secretary of the Judicial Conference. “Unfortunately, without a modest increase in fees, we will not be able to collect enough money to cover the costs of delivering the case management system that the federal courts must have to continue to operate securely.” 

The modernized system is also necessary to improve public access to the Judiciary’s electronic case records.

The Judicial Conference’s Executive Committee, acting on behalf of the full Conference, decided to increase the fee for Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) by two cents per page, from 10 cents to 12 cents. In addition, the automatic exemption for PACER fees was raised from $30 to $40 per quarter, ensuring that the vast majority of individual users (those who use $40 or less in PACER services per quarter) would continue to incur no fee or fee increase.

The fee increase will remain in place for a five-year period. It is the first adjustment in PACER fees in nearly 15 years. In 2012, the per-page fee was raised from 8 cents to 10 cents.

Fee collections from the increase will be used to reimburse the costs of the development of the new case management system. The Judiciary collects fees from PACER users to reimburse the costs of operating and modernizing the case management system, which is the engine that runs the branch’s intake and processing of court records and provides public access to court records.

Cybersecurity concerns prompted the Judiciary to accelerate the timeline for completion. 

Congress has authorized the Judiciary to collect fees for records accessed through PACER to support that program. The Judicial Conference has taken a number of steps over the years to keep the fees as low as possible.

For example, fees for access to docket sheets, which can be voluminous, are capped at 30 pages. Any pages accessed beyond that number are free, no matter how large the docket sheet. Also, fees for any single document in a case other than transcripts are capped at 30 pages even if a document is hundreds of pages in length. 

A secure, modern, and stable case management system is fundamental to the constitutional functions of the judicial branch, to the daily operation of the courts, and to providing a robust public access program. The Judiciary is moving as quickly as possible to replace its outdated Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) system with a modern, more secure system. PACER is the means by which litigants and the public get access to the records housed in the case management system.

Working in partnership with the courts, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has done extensive work mapping the specific processes for filing and managing all case types across the district, appellate, and bankruptcy courts to understand precisely how the new system must function.

Other milestones have been reached as well. This year, federal courts will begin storing documents, particularly sensitive documents, in a highly secure cloud environment. Through 2027, there are plans for the new case management system to be deployed in the district courts. By the end of that year, the Judiciary plans to have management systems for all civil and criminal cases in a secure cloud environment.

PACER fees currently generate about $147 million a year in collections to help reimburse the cost of providing the Judiciary’s public access programs. Costs for the modernization project are estimated at $700 million to $800 million over a six-year period ending in fiscal year 2030. A substantial portion of the costs will fall in fiscal years 2026 to 2028 to support acceleration of the project.