PUBLIC ACCESS
                             TO COURT
                        ELECTRONIC RECORDS
                                --
U.S. Court of Federal Claims     

                                --
                           USER MANUAL


                 United States Court of Federal Claims
PUBLIC ACCESS TO COURT ELECTRONIC RECORDS
                                  --
                                 PACER
                                  --
                              USER MANUAL

                           Table of Contents

1. ELECTRONIC PUBLIC ACCESS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
     1.1  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
     1.2  What Is Needed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
     1.3  Technical Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
     1.4  Downloading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
     1.5  Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
     1.6  Information Currency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
     1.7  Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
     1.8  Billing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
     1.9  Time Limits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
     1.10 Other Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
     1.11 Access Sign Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
     1.12 When?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
     1.13 PACER Service Center Electronic Bulletin Board . . . . . . 4

2. PACER - U.S. COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
     2.1  Understanding Case Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
     2.2  Understanding Docket Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3. USING PACER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
     3.1  Connecting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
     3.2  Getting Answers to Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

4. TIPS FOR ELECTRONIC ACCESS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
     4.1  Case Number Wildcarding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
     4.2  Update Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
     4.3  Litigant Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
     4.4  Searching By Name. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
     4.5  Common Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
     4.6  Hanging Up the Phone Connection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1. ELECTRONIC PUBLIC ACCESS

1.1  Introduction

     The Federal Court system has services and technologies designed to provide people outside the
court (the "public") with easier and better access to court information.   In cooperation with the United
States Courts, the Federal Judicial Center (FJC) designed an electronic public access system called
PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records).  There are two distinct and separate PACER
services: one for the U.S. District Courts and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and the second for the
U.S. Bankruptcy Courts.  The method of accessing and querying for information from the two services is
comparable; however, users must dial different telephone numbers, and the format and content of
information provided differ.  Some bankruptcy courts have locally developed PACER service (such
courts are considered  "NIBS" courts).

     Federal circuit courts of appeal are offering electronic public access through ABBS (Appellate
Bulletin Board System).  ABBS is a nationally standard appellate bulletin board designed to bring you
appellate court decisions (slip opinions) and other court information such as court oral argument
calendars, case dockets, local bar rules, notices and reports, and press releases.  

     PACER allows the use of a computer and modem to dial into the court, connect to a special
public information computer, and request information about a case.  The system can provide lists of cases
searched by name, as well as a comprehensive electronic summary of the docket of any case.  This
information can be saved on a computer, or may be printed immediately.  Without visiting the court, a
user can obtain case and party information.

     The system is useful when you need quick, accurate information about current federal cases.  You
can:

       Track updates to a case of interest -- the user can check if anything has happened to one or
       perhaps several cases you are tracking.

       Obtain a printed summary of a case -- the user can retrieve the public docket of a typical case.

       List recently docketed events -- the user can review any recent docket entries in any case that
       has had recent docket activity.

       Research case involvements by name -- for example, the user can search for all the cases
       where "ABC Manufacturing" is a litigant.

              Obtain slip opinions as soon as they are available to the public  -- (appellate courts only)1.2  What Is Needed

     The user will need the following items to access this system.  If there is a problem with your in-office equipment and software, contact your equipment vendor (the court cannot provide assistance).

     1.   Computer -- A computer allows the user to save downloaded data (case information) onto
          a disk for later review, printing, or even editing (with a word processor or text editor). 
          You must also have a computer to run some type of communication software, or a dumb
          terminal with a modem.

     2.   Printer -- A printer is indispensable for obtaining a "hard copy" of the information you
          received.  It is much easier to read a printed version, and it can serve as a file document
          for later reference.

     3.   Modem -- Currently 2400, 9600 or faster baud modems are acceptable.  Use the fastest
          speed possible.  It makes the system easier to use, particularly for downloading large
          docket reports. 

1.3  Technical Specifications

     Most PACER systems are set for 8 data bits, 1 stop bit and no parity with vt100 terminal
emulation.  Other than that, it is pure ASCII.  If you experience problems running at the standard settings
try switching them to 7 bits, 1 stop bit and even parity.  A few courts use these settings.

1.4  Downloading

     The easiest method to access the system is to set the communications software to perform a
continuous save to disk during the entire session.  When the session is finished, it is possible to edit the
saved file (if necessary) and print it out for review and reference.  If desirable, a user may begin the save-to-disk only after selecting a case to obtain information (but before the report (y/n) question is answered). 
In this way, the reports(s) can be saved in a file, so the user will not have to edit the extraneous lines
later.  

     If using a printing terminal, a printed version of the entire session will be produced.  Often, a
dumb terminal can also be set to do a continuous print.  Either way, this provides a paper copy of the
session which can be read and perhaps filed for later review.
1.5  Printing

     All hardware-specific codes have been removed from the output sent to the screen.  This has the
advantage that no matter what sort of printer or terminal/computer is used, there should be few problems
printing the report.  Note that form-feed codes (CTRL-L) are used to separate the pages.  Often this will
automatically advance your printer to the next page, which is just what is desired.  If not, you can edit
and paginate as necessary, using any editor or word processor.

     The output is formatted for 80 columns so a printer will be needed that can handle output at least
that wide.  Pagination is designed to be suitable for standard 11-inch paper, so this will probably work
with printer being used "as is".

1.6  Information Currency

     The PACER System runs on a computer which is separate from the main court computer.  While
this allows the courts to offer public service without slowing down the court operations (and offers the
potential to expand public service in the future), it does have a slight penalty in information currency. 
The inquiry computer is updated from the host computer once a day.  This update will include all changes
made the previous day, and will normally be done in the morning.

     Case filings and updates to the docket will typically not appear on the PACER system until the
day after they are entered on the main court computer.  Of course, technical difficulties may cause
somewhat longer delays.  If there is any major problem with information currency, a message will appear
on the PACER screen when you first sign on.  The message will also contain the date of filings that the
Clerk's Office is currently working on and information regarding system maintenance.

1.7  Cost

     The U. S. Congress has given the Judicial Conference of the United States, the judicial governing
body for the U.S. Federal Courts, authority to impose user fees for electronic access to case information. 
All registered agencies or individuals will be assessed the charge of $.75 per minute of access time. 
PACER billing begins upon a successful login and fees accrue until the session is terminated by the user
or there is an abnormal exit.  An abnormal exit is defined as turning off the modem in mid-transmission,
losing the carrier, etc.

1.8  Billing

     The PACER Service Center sends quarterly statements.  The statement will be broken down by
court and individual login with a client code, time in, time out, and total time for each transaction (Please
note, the client code will not appear on the bill unless the user enters it at the beginning of each session).  

     If you believe there is an error on your statement, please write to the PACER Service Center,
P.O. Box 780549, San Antonio, Texas 78278-0549.  All requests for credit must be submitted in writing. 
In your correspondence, provide us with your name, account number, and the dollar amount of the
suspected error(s) together with a copy of the portion of the statement in question, highlighting the
disputed amounts.  Please provide a reason for each credit being requested.  When the PACER Service
Center receives your request, you will be contacted by a representative.

1.9  Time Limits

     There is an "idle time" limit (how long the user can be logged on to PACER with no action before
it disconnects) as well as a "session time" limit (how long the session can last).

     "Session time" lengths will be 15 minutes.  Permission to re-dial the service is allowed if more
time is necessary.  In addition, the system will disconnect after six minutes of "idle time."  A warning will
be displayed when a time limit is approaching.

1.10 Other Limits

     Other limits on what is available from this system may be possible as designed by the court.  Also,
there are limits built in as to the maximum number of people and cases allowed to be matched at one
time.  This should not be a problem if a fairly complete name is entered and searching extremely common
litigant names is avoided.

1.11 Access Sign Up

     In order to access the PACER system, contact the PACER Service Center at 800-676-6856 to
register and receive a login/password for the system.

1.12 When?

     Dial-in to access electronic information is virtually around-the-clock, except for brief period of
time for system maintenance.   Normally there are several telephone lines available on an automatic rotary
so busy signals should not be a problem.

1.13 PACER Service Center Electronic Bulletin Board

     A PACER Service Center electronic bulletin board has been established.  This new service (800-214-0847), available at no charge, allows existing PACER registrants to dial in 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week (your PC software should be set for 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit and RTS/CTS or NONE for flow
control using 2400-baud modems or faster; 9600 baud modems must be V.32 compatible).  The service:
(a) provides an updated listing of courts serviced by the service center, (b) allows users to automatically
register for additional courts and change passwords, (c) reviews user's billing history for all courts
nationwide, (d) provides user manuals and status of each court's PACER system (e.g., courts with
computer disruptions or other technical problems), and (e) allows users to leave messages and comments
for service center personnel.
2. PACER - U.S. COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS

2.1  Understanding Case Numbers

     Federal courts, including the United States Court of Federal Claims, use four-part case numbers. 
A typical case number is:

       "1:88cv12345"

       1:           88             cv        12345
      (Office      (Case          (Case      (Case
       Number)     Year)          Type)      Sequence)

     As the U.S. Court of Federal Claims has only one clerk's office and no divisional offices, the office
number is always 1.  All cases opened in a given calendar year have the last two digits of that year as the
second part of the case number.  The U.S. Court of Federal Claims uses three case types: "cv" for a civil
case, "vv" for vaccine, and "cg" for a Congressional Reference.  Finally, there is an ascending sequence
number, here "12345".  All four parts of the case number are needed to uniquely identify a case in the
court.  

     Fortunately, if the case type or office is omitted on the PACER system, it will display all cases
which match the year and number entered.  The correct one can then be selected from the list shown.

2.2  Understanding Docket Reports 

     If the user is not familiar with the docket reports, it may take a moment before the format is
recognized.  These reports were designed to be the official record of a case, primarily used by individuals
intimately familiar with the format.  In this court, you may access civil, vaccine, and Congressional
Reference electronic docket sheets.

     The typical docket sheet contains information obtained from the Cover Sheet submitted by the
plaintiff for each complaint or petition filed.  The parties and counsel for each party, including an address
and telephone number, appear on the first page of the docket report.

     Following the list of the participants in the case, a page break (using CTRL-L formfeed) starts a
fresh page for the listing of events in the case.

     Additional features of the docket report include:

       Docket as of... -- this is the date and time that the case was last updated on the court's main
       computer.  If no recent updates have been made to the case, this "docket as of " date may be
       quite old.  It may not be necessary to reprocess the report when no updates have occurred
       since the date of your last report.

       Nature of Suit: -- refer to the United States Court of Federal Claims Civil Cover Sheet list
       for a complete explanation of the various codes used here.  Major categories include:

          100  Contract-Construction(CDA)    500  Common Carrier
          138  Contract-Injunctions               504  Native American
          200  Tax-Allowance of Interest          508  Patent
          300  Civilian Pay-Back Pay         510  Taking-Personalty
          340  Military Pay-Back Pay         518  Misc.-Damages
          400  Retro/Injury-DPT & Polio      530  Declaratory Judgment-Other
          456  Post/Injury-DPT & Polio       534  Indian Claims Commission

       Jurisdiction: -- This has been set as 1 for all cases filed in or transferred to the U.S. Court of
       Federal Claims.

       Cause:  -- The federal statute (USC 28:1491 for civil cases, USC 28:1492 for congressional
       reference cases and USC 42:300 for vaccine cases) under which the plaintiff files the
       complaint or petition, as well as a brief description of the statute.

       Lead Docket: -- The case docket number of the lead case for related or consolidated cases.

       Dkt # in other court: -- The case docket number from another court in cases transferred to
       the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

       Case Type:  -- The major category (Civil, Vaccine and Congressional Reference). 

       [COR LD NTC] -- Stands for "Counsel Of Record", as well as "LeaD" attorney.  The "NTC"
       indicates this person will receive notices for the case.  Could also contain PRO SE, indicating
       a self-represented party.

       4/19/88 -- The left hand dates in the event list for the case indicate when each event was filed
       in the court.

       1 -- The sequence numbers which follow the left hand date are unique document numbers for
       each filing in the case record.  If a "--" appears, there is no document for the particular
       docketed entry.

       (dot) -- The initials of the court staff member who docketed the event.

       [Entry date 4/20/88] -- The date the event was electronically entered on the electronic
       docket.  It appears only if the entry date differs from the filing date.

       [Edit date 4/25/88] -- The date this event was edited by the court staff.

     There may be additional codes or notations at the top right side of each docket page.  These 
codes or words represent special case identifiers for court or case management processing.

3. USING PACER

3.1  Connecting 

     To use this system, just follow the steps in this checklist.

     1.   Set up Equipment -- Follow the standard startup procedure for your PC.  Make sure your  
          modem is turned on and plugged in to your computer and telephone line.  The user must
          communicate at 2400 or faster baud, 8 data bits, one stop bit, and no parity, with a few
          exceptions; this standard setup may already be the default for system being used.

     2.   Dial the Court's Computer Number -- 1-800-369-8477.  Use the modem to dial the courts
          public access system.  A login prompt shortly after the connection is made should be received. 
          If the login prompt does not appear after connection, hit the <enter> key or send a break.

     3.   Log In -- Enter the user name and password provided by the PACER Service Center.  Logins
          should be entered in lower case letters.

     4.   Select a case or menu item as appropriate.

3.2  Getting Answers to Questions

     If there are questions about the information the court is providing (how far back does the data go,
how long does it take a motion filed to appear on this system, or a question about a docket entry) contact
the court directly at (202) 219-9697.  If you would like access to a court that you are not currently
registered with, contact the PACER Service Center at (800) 676-6856 to add the court to your current
login.  

     Neither the PACER Service Center nor the court has the resources to provide extensive technical
assistance for any difficulties that your PC or your software may be having in communicating with
PACER, or other problems.    Please contact the vendor or local systems technician if basic difficulties
are occurring using a terminal or computer equipment.4. TIPS FOR ELECTRONIC ACCESS

     There are a number of ways this public information program can be used to rapidly obtain needed
information.  Here are some special features and techniques which can save time and effort.

4.1  Case Number Wildcarding

     With PACER, the four parts of the case "number" (office, year, type, and number) are not needed;
only year and number are required.  The system will access the case or cases which match the numbers
entered, listing the choices for further selection.

     For example, case "88-12345" is desired, you can just type it in to the system that way.  If there is
more than one case with that year/number (for example, with different office codes, or with different
types), each will be listed for further identification.

4.2  Update Review

     Tracking several cases with a common participant.  If the electronic docket has been retrieved
during an earlier session, when accessing the case list (selecting by the name of the common participant
or party), review the "last update" date to see if there is any need for a new docket report.  If not, it is not
necessary to retrieve a new report.

4.3  Litigant Analysis

     This system can be used to learn more about other cases involving the same party.  For example,
if working on a suit against XYZ Corporation, a search of the corporate name can be done to discover if
anyone else is currently involved in a case with the same company.

4.4  Searching By Name

     The PACER system will search for a party in many ways.  It is helpful though, if the name is
requested the same way that it was entered on the computer.  Here are some ways to make this easier.

     This court is striving to standardize  case captioning on our dockets.  There may, however, be
variations in how parties have captioned their cases, and this may lead to variations in how a name is
actually entered in the system.  Several searches may be necessary to find a party of interest.  For
example, the United States Air Force could be entered in several ways:

       United States Air Force
       U.S. Air Force
       U.S.A.F.
       Air Force

4.5  Common Names

     It is possible to look up a case with PACER using any of the parties in the case.  However, names
which represent very active litigants (such as "USA") are not a very good choice to search with.  If using
a party who is in too many cases, the system will spend a minute or two searching, and eventually state
that too many cases were selected.

     The solution is to use a more unique litigant to find the case of interest.  If, for example, accessing
a case of John Q. Watchburg vs. USA, do the search on the name "Watchburg" rather than on the too
common "USA".

4.6  Hanging Up the Phone Connection

     Please remember that your equipment is responsible for closing the communications with the
PACER system when you are through using it.  In some PC environments, such as Windows, it is
possible to go from one project to another without hanging up a COM line connection.  If you do switch
to another activity and the PACER system encounters some problem, your phone line could still be
engaged.  If this were a toll call, the "meter" might stay running on your call long after you thought your
session was complete.  Please be sure that at the end of each session you go back to the main menu and
choose the logoff option then hang up the line on your end.