>> Not sure how that can help poorer members of society, since most people are quite unlikely to be doing their own case law research anyway.

Legal opinions are free, for pro-se case law research: https://scholar.google.com/ etc. You need access to the filings to see if someone got screwed.

I use the filings in notable cases to help me figure out what I need to say in my own case. The State University's law school library has free access to Westlaw, and other resources (law journals, etc).

> That's frequently the only way the poor can pursue justice. Pro se representation is a thing;

The Federal Judicial Center has a report on helping the federal courts deal with unrepresented parties [2]. My local district court has a free attorney program for people like me who can't afford an attorney. My last free consultation, the attorney suggested I had a case of 'fraud on the court', which is when you get screwed by your opponent playing dirty.

Almost five years ago I'd petitioned the state court pro-se for a writ habeas corpus, on behalf of my friend, the day after I found the term mentioned in the state statutes: "habeas corpus [0]? oh how useful". The judge seemed impressed that she was able to rule in my favor. On returning to the hospital with my granted court order, I was attacked by the security guards and was charged with misdemeanors (the one hospital security guard got unhinged when I took his picture to document the situation).

> sometimes they even win.

My defense attorney was impressed with my granted pro-se habeas petition. He said he knows attorneys who couldn't do what I did as a rookie pro-se filer.

My subsequent filings have all been fine, but the various judges have found ways to avoid having to deal with them. The first judge misquoted the wording of state statutes to make my petition go away. The state court of appeals recruited one of their retired judges to dismiss my appeal. The state supreme court dismissed without comment.

Federal judges are supposedly better than state judges, on account of the lifetime appointments. I think the district court judge who had to deal with me didn't want to, so he just ignored the inconvenient parts of the case law. The court of appeals also got rid of my appeals, without addressing my contentions. Hrmph. I recently figured out how to get a new judge [1].

> But aside from that, without knowing what courts are doing, there is no way to assure they're acting in the public interest. The public must be able to inspect the work output of the courts if a free society is to stay free.

This is well said. My district court filings are all public, even though they ought to at least be anonymized (like was done in Roe v. Wade, for example). I've come to appreciate that my asking to file under seal gave the court of appeals judges and supreme court justices a convenient 'out' that allows them to avoid having to deal with me. My predicament is that don't want to give advanced notice to the perpetrators who ought to be prosecuted.

As far as these pacer fees: I'm glad my filings haven't been siphoned into courtlistener.com yet, as that means they can still be sealed...

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus

[1] 28 U.S. Code § 144.Bias or prejudice of judge -- https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/144

[2] https://www.fjc.gov/sites/default/files/2017/Pro_Se_Case_Man...