Title: Electronic Court Records Reform Act of 2019
Policy area: Law

Summary:
Electronic Court Records Reform Act of 2019
Additionally, it establishes certain requirements for the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system, including the following:

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2064 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2064

   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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              July 9, 2019

  Mr. Portman introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
               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 Management/Electronic Case Files 
                    system, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 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''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Administrator.--The term ``Administrator'' means the 
        Administrator of General Services.
            (2) Director.--The term ``Director'' means the Director of 
        the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.
            (3) Machine-readable.--The term ``machine-readable'' means 
        a format in which information or data can be easily processed 
        by a computer without human intervention while ensuring no 
        semantic meaning is lost.

SEC. 3. CONSOLIDATION OF THE CASE MANAGEMENT/ELECTRONIC CASE FILES 
              SYSTEM.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 2 years after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Director, in coordination with the 
Administrator, shall--
            (1) consolidate the Case Management/Electronic Case Files 
        system; and
            (2) develop 1 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 technology--
            (1) to improve security, data accessibility, affordability, 
        and performance; and
            (2) to minimize the burden on pro se litigants.
    (c) Availability to States.--
            (1) In general.--A State may choose to participate 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 developed under this 
        section at a level sufficient to recover the cost of providing 
        the services associated with the administration and maintenance 
        of the system to the State.

SEC. 4. 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, in coordination with the 
Administrator, shall update the Public Access to Court Electronic 
Records system, 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 of the United States.
            (2) All documents on the system shall be available 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 redacted.
            (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 any available digital audio 
        and visual files of court recordings.
            (7) The system shall provide search functions for public 
        use.
    (b) Minimizing the Burden on Pro Se Litigants.--In developing the 
system to comply with the requirements 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 technology--
            (1) to improve security, data accessibility, affordability, 
        and performance; and
            (2) to minimize the burden on pro se litigants.
    (d) Authority To Exempt Certain Documents.--The Director may 
identify categories of--
            (1) documents that are not made publicly accessible under 
        subsection (a)(1); and
            (2) court proceedings, the recordings of which are not made 
        available under subsection (a)(6).
    (e) Filing Fees.--The Judiciary Appropriations Act, 1992 (title III 
of Public Law 102-140; 105 Stat. 807) is amended by striking section 
303 (28 U.S.C. 1913 note) and inserting the following:
    ``Sec. 303. (a)(1) To cover the costs of maintaining the Public 
Access to Court Electronic Records system in accordance with section 4 
of the Electronic Court Records Reform Act of 2019, the Judicial 
Conference--
            ``(A) shall collect an annual fee from the Department of 
        Justice equal to the Public Access to Court Electronic Records 
        access fees paid by the Department of Justice in 2018, as 
        adjusted for inflation; and
            ``(B) may, only to the extent necessary, prescribe 
        reasonable filing fees, pursuant to sections 1913, 1914, 1926, 
        1930, and 1932 of title 28, United States Code, for collection 
        by the courts under those sections.
    ``(2) The filing fees shall be commensurate with the burden imposed 
on the court by the party. The filing fees shall impose a lesser fee on 
filers who are filing on behalf of individuals. Pro se litigants and 
litigants who certify their financial hardship shall not be subject to 
the filing fees. The Director of the Administrative Office of the 
United States Courts, under the direction of the Judicial Conference of 
the United States, shall prescribe a schedule of reasonable filing fees 
to cover the costs described in this subsection that the Director shall 
maintain and make available to the public.
    ``(b) The Judicial Conference and the Director shall transmit each 
schedule of fees prescribed under subsection (a) to Congress at least 
30 days before the schedule becomes effective. All fees collected under 
subsection (a) shall be deposited as offsetting collections to the 
Judiciary Information Technology Fund pursuant to section 612(c)(1)(A) 
of title 28, United States Code, to reimburse expenses incurred in 
providing services in accordance with section 4 of the Electronic Court 
Records Reform Act of 2019.''.
    (f) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this Act, or the amendments 
made by this Act, shall be construed to--
            (1) affect the filing fees or other filing procedures for 
        prisoners; or
            (2) abrogate, limit, or modify the requirements described 
        in section 1915 of title 28, United States Code.
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