PACER Electronic Court Records Service Restores Deleted U.S. Files

PACER, an electronic database of U.S. federal court records, was in hot water recently for its decision to delete a decade's worth of older court docket documents as part of a system upgrade. PACER charges about 10 cents US per page from documents in the docket of a case. We subscribe to it at my place of work.

The court documents were from the US Courts of Appeals for the 2nd, 7th, 11th, and Federal Circuits, as well as the Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. The explanation was that the documents from those courts were on older legacy court management systems that were not compatible with the newer PACER platform.

Good news. The Administrative Office  of the United States Courts, the arm of the American government that runs the federal courts, has now decided to restore the files. The process should be completed by the end of October.

Earlier Library Boy posts about PACER include:  

• Where to Find U.S. Court Documents (September 25, 2009): "The WisBlawg (University of Wisconsin Law Library) has put together a list of services and databases to find that kind of material. It includes the big names such as Westlaw and Lexis as well as specialized services like PACER, FreeCourtDockets, RECAP and Justia Federal District Court Filings and Dockets."
• PACER Database for US Court Documents Gets a Remake (May 18, 2010): "The PACER website (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) has a new look (...) Resourceshelf describes the changes."
• User Survey Results for PACER's Electronic Court Records Service in the US (October 4, 2010): "The Judicial Conference of the United States has released the findings of a year-long survey of the users of PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) ... 80% of users surveyed indicating they are 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with the service. Over 95% of respondents who contacted the help desk during the study period indicated they are 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied" overall'."