Compared New Online Access to Federal Courts By Lynn Peterson Lynn Peterson is president of PFC Information Services, Inc. , a public records research firm located in Oakland, California. Lynn has been quoted on public records research in a variety of sources including The Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, and The Information Broker's Handbook. PFC Information Services provides public records research for law firms, corporations, lenders, venture capitalists, employers, the media, and other information research firms. At this site you can view not only docket sheets, but the documents themselves in PDF format are just a mouse-click away. McCulloch Corp. These cases were selected, as they are all extremely high profile.
Access is free and no password is required.
Internet access to case records is currently available in nine federal courts. The project began in 1996 and enables participating attorneys to submit pleadings and docket entries in PDF format directly to the court. They plan to bring all of the U.S. district and bankruptcy courts on board, and expect full nationwide implementation in four years. With Internet access, there is no way to charge by the minute. The privacy issue as it pertains to Internet access to federal court records is still being debated.