You’re sick and tired of paying for access to federal court documents, especially given the fact that they’re supposed to be copyright-free and in the public domain. You spend $0.08 per page to get copies of pleadings, bankruptcy petitions, the whole nine yards.
Paying for stuff that should be free sucks.
Enter RECAP, the Firefox extension that puts the duplicated documents on a mirror hosted by Internet Archive. Sounds awesome, right?
Well, it is and it isn’t. You can get the documents free of charge using RECAP, but only if someone else using the extension has already paid for it. So the success of the extension depends on lawyers all around the country using RECAP.
Sounds cool, a nifty peer-to-peer system for federal court documents. But I’m betting that most big law firms use Internet Explorer and prohibit the installation of third-party software such as Firefox and extensions. So RECAP will take a long time to really get off the ground.
Then again, maybe Biglaw will wake up and see the savings.
Time will tell. In the interim, let me know in the comments section if YOU are going to be using RECAP.
Doesn't "the truth about…" imply that there's misinformation being spread about it? Can you cite any? Also, BigLaw makes up 18% of the legal profession. I realize that their money makes them impressive to a lot of people, but when it comes to which *free* browser to use, they're not any more influential than anyone else. This is one of those rare times when they don't have a disproportionate amount of influence.BigLaw uses internet explorer? Who cares?
Hey there, I'm one of the RECAP developers. Everything you describe is true, although I agree with the previous commenter that your headine might be a bit misleading. I'd also mention that we're kicking off with a large existing set of documents, and we're integrating with others that have large caches of documents.I'll also use this as an opportunity to put out a call for IE extension developers. We have figured out all the PACER integration gotchas… we just don't know how to code it. If you're interested, see this item in our feedback system.
The problem with this is that if our clients knew that we were making their information more available to casual browsers of the internet, they'd rebel. Although I'd love to avoid using Pacer, I don't think that RECAP is something my clients would favor my using.Brett
I'm not saying there's misinformation, merely that the reality is that all of the federal court documents are not online for free (which is what many lawyers think). And as a peer-to-peer setup it's going to take a long time until more is there for the asking. Biglaw takes up only 18% of the legal profession, but the solo and small firm lawyer culls far fewer federal documents from PACER on a monthly basis. As such, it will take longer to get a critical mass of documents online than would otherwise be the case if Biglaw were using the system.For that reason, we do care if Biglaw is using IE rather than Firefox. Without use of Firefox, the RECAP system is all but useless to Biglaw – the mass consumers of federal PACER documents.
To the commenter who said his clients would not it if he used PACER – how would your client feel to know that commercial research providers like LEXIS and Westlaw routinely harvest your documents and sell them for profit. As for me, as I posted at my blog, RECAP is riding shotgun as I browse PACER.
I don't think they care about Lexis and Westlaw and whether attorneys doing research can find something. They *do* care about whether their next-door neighbor can type their name into Google and find out that they filed for bankruptcy (and see their schedules).Brett
Don't forget about http://www.frreecourtdockets.com. Free Pacer dockets available to anyone 24/7.
Try I-Got-Notices. It's a pretty good way to get the filings without having to go back and forth on Pacer.
I-Got-Notices rocks, but that's a different solution. IGN saves your "free look" through ECF; it does not give you potentially free access to every other document on PACER.
I-Got-Notices rocks, but that's a different solution. IGN saves your "free look" through ECF; it does not give you potentially free access to every other document on PACER.
i use it, but it is ridiculous to believe that lawyers are going to upload their own clients' pacer docs. yeah they are public, and you can see them for free if you actually go to the courthouse, but broadcasting the documents of your own client is sometimes, often, counter to a client's interests.
if my lawyer did it, I would grieve him/her to the bar disciplinary panel