‘It’s About the Little Victories’: Government Closer to Paying $125 Million it Overcharged for Court Records

Impacted parties in a $125 million class action lawsuit regarding charges by the U.S. court records system PACER may have started to receive notifications about the settlement, according to a website dedicated to the lawsuit.

The news highlights the massive fees that some PACER users can face, and what critics see as an overpricing for public records that some argue should be free to access.

“It's a good start, puts the judiciary on notice that PACER fees should not just be a black hole slush fund for the courts,” Seamus Hughes, Senior Research Faculty, National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education (NCITE) at the University of Nebraska Omaha, and who uses PACER extensively, told Motherboard in an email. “The best part about all of this is I couldn't even tell you what my PACER bill was during the timeframe of the class action lawsuit because PACER doesn't allow me to go back more than two years to get old invoices. Never change, PACER.”

In October, the U.S. government agreed to pay the $125 million to refund PACER users. Those reimbursements are up to $350 per user for anyone who used PACER from April 2010 to May 2018, Reuters reported at the time.

“The parties have agreed to settle to avoid the cost and risk of litigation. The parties have engaged in extensive, arm’s-length negotiations with the assistance of a mediator. After carefully considering the facts and applicable law and the risks, costs, delay, inconvenience, and uncertainty of continued and protracted litigation, Class Counsel have concluded that it is in the best interest of the Class to compromise and settle the lawsuit,” the website dedicated to the lawsuit reads.

That site tells users who believe they are impacted to notify the claims administrator no later than September 5th, 2023.

PACER continues to charge fees for searching and viewing documents through its website. That website can often fall victim to bugs or other issues.

“For me and PACER it's about the little victories. Does the PDF actually load this time? Is that district court website actually working today? If the answer is yes, it's a win. That's the bar I've set in my head after decades of disappointment. As a general rule in a functioning democracy, public records, in particular, legal ones, should be free. But barring that, if we can clawback 125 million from the U.S. Courts for overcharging for a website that lacks basic user search functions, I'll take it,” Hughes continued. 

“I haven't been notified yet but once I do, I intend to use the settlement money to pay for my current PACER bill. The Courts always win in the end,” he added.

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