I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1164 
To direct the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States 
Courts to consolidate the Case Management/Electronic Case Files system, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 13, 2019 
Mr. COLLINS of Georgia (for himself, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. DAVID P. ROE of 
Tennessee, and Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To direct the Director of the Administrative Office of the 
United States Courts to consolidate the Case Manage-
ment/Electronic Case Files system, and for other pur-
poses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Electronic Court 
Records Reform Act of 2019’’. 
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SEC. 2. CONSOLIDATION OF THE CASE MANAGEMENT/ELEC-
TRONIC CASE FILES SYSTEM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the Ad-
ministrative Office of the United States Courts, in coordi-
nation with the Administrator of General Services, shall 
consolidate the Case Management/Electronic Case Files 
system, and shall develop one system for all filings with 
courts of the United States, which shall be administered 
by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. 
(b) USE OF TECHNOLOGY.—In developing the system 
under subsection (a), the Director shall use modern tech-
nology in order— 
(1) to improve security, data accessibility, af-
fordability, and performance; and 
(2) to minimize the burden on pro se litigants. 
(c) AVAILABILITY TO STATES.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—A State may choose to par-
ticipate in the system developed under this section. 
(2) FEE.—The Director shall charge a fee to a 
State that chooses to participate in the system, 
which is set at a level to recover the cost of pro-
viding the services associated with the administra-
tion and maintenance of the system to the State. 
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SEC. 3. PUBLIC ACCESS TO COURT ELECTRONIC RECORDS 
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the Ad-
ministrative Office of the United States Courts, in coordi-
nation with the Administrator of General Services, shall 
update the Public Access to Court Electronic Records sys-
tem, which shall be subject to the following requirements: 
(1) A document filed with a court shall be made 
publicly accessible upon filing, except as ordered by 
a court or by rule of the Judicial Conference. 
(2) All documents on the system shall be avail-
able to the public and to parties before the court 
free of charge. 
(3) Any information that is prohibited from 
public disclosure by law or court order shall be re-
dacted. 
(4) All documents shall be text-searchable and 
machine-readable. 
(5) To the extent practicable, external websites 
shall be able to link to documents on the system. 
(6) The system shall include digital audio and 
visual files of court recordings, when such files are 
available. 
(7) The system shall provide search functions 
for public use. 
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(b) MINIMIZING THE BURDEN ON PRO SE LITI-
GANTS.—In developing the system to comply with the re-
quirements under subsection (a), the Director shall, to the 
extent practicable, not impose a disproportionate impact 
on pro se litigants. 
(c) USE OF TECHNOLOGY.—In developing the system 
under subsection (a), the Director shall use modern tech-
nology in order— 
(1) to improve security, data accessibility, af-
fordability, and performance; and 
(2) to minimize the burden on pro se litigants. 
(d) AUTHORITY
TO
EXEMPT
CERTAIN
DOCU-
MENTS.—The Director may identify categories of docu-
ments which are not made publicly accessible under sub-
section (a)(1), and categories of court proceedings, the re-
cordings of which are not made available under subsection 
(a)(6). 
SEC. 4. DEFINITION OF MACHINE-READABLE. 
In this Act, the term ‘‘machine-readable’’ means a 
format in which information or data can be easily proc-
essed by a computer without human intervention while en-
suring no semantic meaning is lost. 
Æ 
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