Courthouse News: $125 million settlement approved in class action over excessive Pacer fees
Issues
This excerpt is from a piece that originally ran on March 21, 2024.
A federal judge approved a $125 million settlement deal in a class action Thursday, ordering the reimbursement for eligible users of the Pacer electronic court system.
The suit, brought by the National Veterans Legal Services Program, National Consumer Law Center and Alliance for Justice argued that the government had wrongfully charged excessive fees — by law only meant to cover the cost of providing records — to cover unrelated projects.
According to the plaintiffs’ suit, initially brought in 2016, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts had used the excessive fees through the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system to cover the costs of installing audio systems to flat-screen televisions for jurors.