Federal Court documents are more widely available and at a lower cost.

At its closed-door meeting at the Supreme Court today, the Judicial Conference approved measures aimed at making federal court documents and courtroom audio recordings more widely available and at lower cost.

The conference, the policy-making arm of the federal judiciary, voted to increase the number of documents members of the public can obtain free through the PACER system. Currently, users can get up to $10 worth of free documents annually, but now they can get $10 free per quarter. Anthony Scirica, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit and chair of the conference's executive committee, said that based on past usage patterns, the change would mean that 75 per cent of PACER users would pay nothing for a year of use. Scirica held a press conference at the Court following the conference meeting.

Public access advocates have been pressuring the judiciary to make access to court documents free, but Scirica said that Congress has also made it clear that "it doesn't want tax dollars to pay for this access," so some charges for high-volume requesters were retained. He said the PACER system received 360 million document requests last year.
The conference also moved to expand on a successful two-year pilot program that has made digital audio of court proceedings available through PACER at a handful of district and bankruptcy courts nationwide. The cost of obtaining the recordings will go from $26 to $2.40, and all federal courts will be encouraged to make recordings available if they already digitally record their proceedings. "It was well-received, and got high marks," said Scirica. Several appeals courts already bypass PACER by posting free audio of hearings on their Web sites, and that will not change.

Link:
http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2010/03/federal-courts-move-toward-more-public-access.html