September 25, 2007
Could real-time transcripts be far behind?
Tired of not knowing whether to believe those second- and third-hand accounts of courtroom gaffes? Don't worry, now lawyers can turn to old reliable PACER (the Public Access to Court Electronic Records database, for those still practicing law with fountain pen in hand) to get a transcript of proceedings. On Sept. 18, the Judicial Conference of the United States voted to make transcripts of federal district and bankruptcy court proceedings available online through PACER. Not surprisingly, there will be a time lag. Only after three months, or 90 days from when the court reporter delivers the transcripts to the clerk, will the documents will be available online. But for the right courthouse fireworks, such an accurate recounting will be worth the wait.
-- Miriam Rozen
After posting this this morning, I've been thinking about it a lot. This cannot be good for court reporters. PACER charges you 8 cents a page to look at documents in their system. Anybody and everybody can get an account with PACER. That means anybody and everybody will be able to view transcripts online and print them out for a mere 8 cents page and the court reporter will collect nothing. This is just not right. What can we do to change this? Send your ideas or comments to me, please.
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