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The Federal Courts Are Running an Online Scam
- howard941 8y agoWhen PACER - at the time a BAE product - and CM/ECF in particular was forced on us (us being attorneys practicing in my district) it was touted as a cost savings measure...for the clerks office, by offloading the work to attorneys, staff, and ultimately the clients. It has continued to serve that purpose. The Politico piece is not exaggerating. The search functionality charges by the page ($.15/pg, 1 pg min) and there's no way to limit the number of pages it'll spit out ahead of time other than with restrictive terms. Lexis's search engine in 1991 (when I could last afford it!) was leaps and bounds ahead of PACER's. All of these costs are borne by users, be they the litigants (once they've exhausted their "one free look") or the public. It's shameful.