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Federal criminal defense attorneys must pay for PACER access out of their own pockets (in theory, they are reimbursed, often years later, often at less than the
by pseingatl 6y ago
Federal criminal defense attorneys must pay for PACER access out of their own pockets (in theory, they are reimbursed, often years later, often at less than the full cost). Nor can they access records in criminal cases in other districts.
Meanwhile, prosecutors don’t pay and have nationwide access.
It’s fair of course. Completely. The Rule of law™.
- mlissner 6y agoHi, founder of Free Law Project here. Actually, the DOJ is the biggest PACER user and they pay a ton of money on PACER each year. Somebody FOIA'ed it a few years back, and it totals about $3-4M/year. https://free.law/pacer-facts/#what-if-i%E2%80%99m-a-government-employee-say-at https://free.law/pacer-facts/#what-if-i%E2%80%99m-a-governme...
- seanmcdirmid 6y agoThere is a difference between defense attorneys having to pay out of pocket (and being reimbursed a few years later) and the DOJ paying the bill for their prosecutors.
- mlissner 6y agoYes, very true, thanks. Another interesting angle is how DOJ can subpoena tech co's for, say, location information, but defense attorneys can't. So if you want exculpatory data, you have fewer avenues for getting it. The deck is stacked in a lot of ways against the defense.
- toomuchtodo 6y agoDoes the DOJ use RECAP? If not, could they be convinced to? It’s effectively free money for them to just push out the RECAP browser extension over a group policy to their entire user base.
- mlissner 6y agoThat'd be a win, but to our knowledge, no.
- toomuchtodo 6y agoI will put the ask forth. Thanks for the context.
- Aerroon 6y agoHow can access to the legal system's documents cost money? Why are taxes not paying for this?