Free Court Dockets - Introduction.
Paul Bush, at Courtport , writes to inform me about his company's publication of the PACER dockets for free at his Free Court Dockets site. There has been some buzz on the web lately, about RECAP, which is a free Firefox add-on that gives users the option to post their PACER docket searches. Paul says that:
"RECAP is similar, yet different from FCD.
Since RECAP relies on Pacer users sharing dockets and documents,
it possible for information to get widely distributed that should only
be available to filing parties. It's also possible for "hackers" to
upload documents to the RECAP collection that are not really from
Pacer. There are other issues as well. RECAP is simply data sharing
among Pacer users. FCD is also sharing, but we obtain all data, not
our users.
FCD is much simpler. We use our Pacer login and password to
obtain public dockets and filings, and then give it away to anyone for
free. FCD users are not required to have a Pacer account or download
and install a Firefox plugin. We do not get it for free, we pay for
it. We obviously need investors, advertisers, and sponsors to succeed
at this :)."
Some authors have opined that some docket information should not be made public, such as allegations in pleadings that are not yet proven. Perhaps the FCD method is better suited to this. For instance, you have to know the docket number of the case; which means you have to have some prior involvement in the matter. In addition, each person gets their own unique invite code number, which must be used to access the records. It will be interesting to see how the Federal Courts react to bulk aggregators publishing the docket information for free. A strong argument can be made that this stuff should be free in the first place, since our taxes pay for it.
Some authors have opined that some docket information should not be made public, such as allegations in pleadings that are not yet proven. Perhaps the FCD method is better suited to this. For instance, you have to know the docket number of the case; which means you have to have some prior involvement in the matter. In addition, each person gets their own unique invite code number, which must be used to access the records. It will be interesting to see how the Federal Courts react to bulk aggregators publishing the docket information for free. A strong argument can be made that this stuff should be free in the first place, since our taxes pay for it.
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