The PACER System (the Public Access to Court Electronic Records System) is a service provided by the Federal Judiciary which allows subscribed users to obtain case and docket information online from federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts. The Law Library does not maintain a PACER subscription, but many of our users may be familiar with this resource.
Earlier this summer, PACER announced new features that are part of the implementation of PACER's NextGen Case Management system. However, implementation of the NextGen system has led to some compatibility issues with older closed case files from several jurisdictions, including the 2nd Circuit, 7th Circuit, 11th Circuit, Federal Circuit, and the Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. All open cases from these jurisdictions will continue to be available, but closed cases which were filed prior to certain points in time will not be available. Specific information for each of the listed jurisdictions is available here.
The announcement has brought strong reaction from the legal community. Media coverage of the issue is available here from the Washington Post "The Switch" blog and here from Ars Technica.
So what's a docket researcher to do? Some of the docket information and individual documents may still be available from commercial sources, such as Bloomberg Law, as well as Westlaw and Lexis. If you have any questions on how to access a particular case, please do not hesitate to ask one of the law librarians. The Prairie Law Blog will also continue to post additional information on this issue as it becomes available.
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