Glossary · Court Records

PACER: Public Access to Court Electronic Records

By Steve Levine · Updated June 30, 2026 · 5 min read

Quick Answer

PACER — short for Public Access to Court Electronic Records — is the federal judiciary's official website for looking up case dockets and downloading filings from U.S. district, appellate, and bankruptcy courts. It charges a per-page fee for most documents, though casual users who stay under the quarterly threshold pay nothing. Free, non-profit alternatives like CourtListener and the RECAP browser extension let many filings be read without paying.

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What PACER Is

PACER is the front door to the federal court system's electronic case files. Behind it sits CM/ECF (Case Management/Electronic Case Files), the system courts use to file and store documents. PACER began as a dial-up service in the late 1980s and moved online in 1998. Instead of one central database, each district court, court of appeals, and bankruptcy court runs its own portal — so there is no single search box that covers every federal case at once.

To find something, you generally need to know a party's name or a specific case number; there is no general keyword search across the full body of filings. Once you locate a case, you can pull its docket (the list of everything filed) and download individual documents such as complaints, motions, and court orders.

What It Costs

PACER bills by the page. The fee is $0.10 per page, capped at $3.00 for most single documents, and the Judicial Conference has approved an increase to $0.12 per page effective January 1, 2027. The system charges based on the pages a search generates, so even a mistyped query can run up a small charge.

There is an important escape hatch: if your total fees are $30 or less in a calendar quarter, they are waived automatically (that threshold rises to $40 starting in 2027). The judiciary says this exemption means roughly three-quarters of users pay nothing. Heavy users — law firms, researchers, journalists, and data companies — are the ones who run up real bills.

Free Ways to Read Court Records

Because PACER's paywall keeps many filings out of easy public reach, non-profits have built free alternatives. The best known is the CourtListener archive run by the Free Law Project, paired with its RECAP browser extension. When a RECAP user buys a document on PACER, a copy is uploaded to the free archive, so the next person can read it without paying. Installing RECAP also flags, right inside PACER, when a free copy already exists.

These tools don't cover every document, and sealed filings are never public anywhere. But for most high-profile class actions, the complaint and major rulings are usually available for free within a day or two of being filed.

Why It Matters for Class Actions

If you're a class member, you usually don't need PACER at all. Court-approved settlements have their own official websites with claim forms, deadlines, and contact pages, and OpenClassActions.com summarizes the docket and key dates for you. PACER and the free tools matter mainly when you want to read the underlying paperwork yourself — the actual complaint, a motion to dismiss, or a judge's order.

PACER's fees have also been a class action in their own right. In National Veterans Legal Services Program v. United States, three non-profits sued over the judiciary diverting PACER fee revenue to projects unrelated to public access; the case resolved in a $125 million settlement returning money to people who paid PACER fees between 2010 and 2018. Reform legislation — the Open Courts Act of 2026 — would scrap the paywall for the general public altogether, though it has not become law.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does PACER stand for?

PACER stands for Public Access to Court Electronic Records. It is the federal judiciary's online system for looking up case dockets and downloading filings from U.S. district, appellate, and bankruptcy courts.

How much does PACER cost?

PACER charges $0.10 per page (rising to $0.12 effective January 1, 2027), capped at $3.00 for most documents. If you run up $30 or less in a quarter ($40 starting in 2027), the fees are waived, so most casual users pay nothing.

Is there a free way to read federal court records?

Often, yes. The non-profit Free Law Project runs CourtListener and the RECAP browser extension, a crowdsourced archive of filings users have already purchased on PACER. Many documents are available there for free, and you can install RECAP so PACER shows you when a free copy exists.

Do I need PACER to track a class action?

Usually not. Court-approved settlements have their own official websites with claim forms and key dates, and OpenClassActions.com summarizes the docket for you. PACER and free tools like CourtListener are mainly useful if you want to read the underlying complaint, motions, or orders yourself.

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