Colin KalmbacherDec 9th, 2020, 1:12 pm
The federal judiciary appears to have lied in order to maintain access to some things they understand well: antiquity and revenue. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a bipartisan proposal to reform the decades-old Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system which would eliminate point-of-access and user fees has a net price tag of $9 million over ten years–a paltry sum by any measure where federal dollars are concerned.
And the sum is markedly lower than the federal judiciary’s claim that reforming the out-of-date PACER system would cost $2 billion.
On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the PACER reform bill–against a strenuous opposition campaign led by the Administrative Office (AO) of the U.S. Courts and various federal judges who signed on to the effort.
Portman continues efforts to reform court records database riponadvance.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from riponadvance.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Using A.I., researchers seek to improve legal practice, administration of justice
The U.S. House of Representatives just last week passed the Open Courts Act, bipartisan legislation which would require the federal judiciary to provide free public access to court records online and modernize the court system. And although the chances that the bill will be signed into law before a new Congress starts in January are uncertain, a team of Northwestern University researchers sees such movement as an encouraging sign.
Funded by a National Science Foundation grant, the Northwestern interdisciplinary team has also been working to make public court records more freely accessible.