PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records)

PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) | findAIList | Find AI List

Overview

PACER is a web-based system providing electronic public access to United States federal court records. It offers access to over 1 billion documents filed across all federal courts. Users can search for cases, access dockets, and retrieve documents. PACER provides APIs, including the PACER Authentication API and PACER Case Locator (PCL) API, enabling programmatic access for automated systems. Commercial users can leverage these APIs to create data scraping scripts, though large pulls are recommended during off-peak hours (6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Central Time) to avoid disruption. NextGen CM/ECF XML Case Opening and Docketing is supported allowing bankruptcy petition preparation software vendors to open a bankruptcy case in NextGen CM/ECF, following XML submission guidelines. The system integrates with CM/ECF, the case management/electronic case files system used in federal courts.

Common tasks

Case Search Document Retrieval API Access

FAQ

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What is PACER?

The Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) service provides electronic public access to federal court records.

How much does it cost to access documents using PACER?

Access to case information costs $0.10 per page, with a cap of $3.00 per document. Fees are waived if you accrue $30 or less in charges in a quarter.

How are billable pages calculated?

For HTML-formatted information, a billable page is calculated using a formula based on the number of bytes extracted (4,320 bytes = 1 billable page). For PDFs, the actual number of pages is counted (1 PDF page = 1 billable page).

What if I cannot find the case I am looking for?

Try using the PACER Case Locator, which generates a listing of nationwide court locations and case numbers where a party is involved in federal litigation. If you still cannot find the case, contact the federal court where you think the case was filed for assistance.