Why Aren’t Federal Court Records Free on the Web, Senator Wonders

Federal courts have worked hard to put public documents online, including not only case opinions but hearing transcripts.

However, the PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) system routinely used for this purpose by many federal courts imposes a small per-page fee. And at least one U.S. Senator is wondering why, in this day and age, public records can't be accessed on the Internet for free, reports the Wall Street Journal Law Blog.

In a letter last week to U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal, who chairs the Rules Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who chairs the U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, asks about the issue.

The rules committee hasn't yet responded but intends to do so, a spokeswoman says.

More details are provided in a National Law Journal article upon which the WSJ blog post is based.

Additional coverage:

Wired: "Lieberman Asks, Why Are Court Docs Still Behind Paid Firewall?"

Corrected March 4 to note that Sen. Lieberman is an Independent from Connecticut.