Government’s PACER Fees Are Too High, Federal Circuit Says (2)

The U.S. government charges too much for access to an electronic database of federal court records, the Federal Circuit ruled in a decision curbing a revenue stream the court system uses to help fund other programs.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court’s decision that the government was not authorized under federal law to spend $192 million in Public Access to Court Records system fees on court technology projects.

The lower court “got it just right” when it limited the government’s use of PACER revenues to the costs of operating the system, the court ...