Automatic Notification Available for PACER

Federal courts now provide automatic case notification through the use of RSS feeds, allowing the public to easily stay informed of newly docketed events.

To do so, anyone can subscribe to a court’s RSS feed, which is free and includes automatic notification of activity in individual cases the user selects.

The feed offers summarized text, such as the name of the document filed, with links to the document and docket report. Results may be sorted by date or case title.

Users must have an account with the judiciary’s Public Access to Court Electronic Documents (PACER) system, and log in to PACER to view the document or docket report linked to the RSS feed. There are many available RSS readers that offer the capability.

To learn which district, bankruptcy, and appellate courts have implemented RSS, visit the PACER website, and then click on the court’s RSS feed icon to display the feed.

Fees apply for electronic access to most documents. The current fee is eight cents per page, with a maximum charge of $2.40 per document. There is no fee for access to court opinions, and fees are waived for users who incur less than $10 of use in a quarterly billing cycle.