WASHINGTON — Starting next year, the federal judiciary is implementing a “modest temporary increase” in fees for electronic access to court records.
It says the hike is necessary to modernize and strengthen the security of its case management and public access system.
The extensive work on the initiative has been funded almost exclusively with existing fee collections, along with focused budget belt-tightening, according to the Judiciary. Existing fee collections, however, are insufficient to cover the remaining phases of developing the new case management system, which is critical to the secure operation of the federal courts.
“Raising user fees, even temporarily, is a last resort,” said Judge Robert Conrad, Jr., director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. “Unfortunately, without a modest increase in fees, we will not be able to collect enough money to cover the costs of delivering the case management system that the federal courts must have to continue to operate securely.”
The modernized system is also necessary to improve public access to the Judiciary’s electronic case records.
The Judicial Conference’s Executive Committee, acting on behalf of the full Conference, decided to increase the fee for Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) by two cents per page, from 10 cents to 12 cents.
In addition, the automatic exemption for PACER fees was raised from $30 to $40 per quarter, ensuring that the vast majority of individual users (those who use $40 or less in PACER services per quarter) would continue to incur no fee or fee increase.
The fee increase will remain in place for a five-year period. It is the first adjustment in PACER fees in nearly 15 years. In 2012, the per-page fee was raised from 8 cents to 10 cents.
Cybersecurity concerns prompted the Judiciary to accelerate the timeline for completion.
Congress has authorized the Judiciary to collect fees for records accessed through PACER to support that program.
PACER fees currently generate about $147 million a year in collections to help reimburse the cost of providing the Judiciary’s public access programs. Costs for the modernization project are estimated at $700 million to $800 million over a six-year period ending in fiscal year 2030. A substantial portion of the costs will fall in fiscal years 2026 to 2028 to support acceleration of the project.
