Frequently Asked Questions

Anyone can access PACER to view federal court records, but first you need to register for a PACER account. 

Case information is available through PACER 24 hours a day, including weekends and holidays. 

Each court maintains its own case information. If you know the district or circuit in which the case is filed, search that court directly. If you do not know where the case is filed, use the PACER Case Locator.

The PACER Service Center is open to assist you at (800) 676-6856 between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. CT Monday through Friday or by email at pacer@psc.uscourts.gov.

While we do not recommend setting up accounts for others, we understand this is a common practice at many firms. Create a new account for an attorney. 

When setting up an account for a user, it is important to use the correct date of birth (DOB) for the individual, as the DOB is permanent to the account.
 

An attorney must be admitted to practice in a specific court and registered to e-file with that same court in order to file court documents electronically and to receive email notices of documents that are filed.

For district and bankruptcy courts: 

Each district/bankruptcy court has its own requirements and procedures for registering. Visit the court's website for more information.

For appellate courts:

Register to become an e-filer in appellate courts and bankruptcy appellate panels. Check the court rules to find out who is permitted. Learn more about the registration procedures.

All attorneys must register for PACER in addition to requesting e-filing privileges in order to fully use the NextGen CM/ECF system.

Find out if your court has transitioned to NextGen.
 

A tax ID may be used in the event that federal debt collection is necessary. It is not used for other purposes. 

For CurrentGen courts, you must register through the court, and the court must approve you as a filer. For NextGen courts, you must register through Manage My Account, and the court must approve you as a filer. You need to register for each court in which you wish to file. 

The federal Judiciary does not recommend sharing PACER accounts. Anyone sharing a username and/or password can potentially update information, like the password, and inadvertently lock out other users who also share the account. To reset your password, you will need to know associated email address and username, or account number, or date of birth, and security questions.   

NextGen CM/ECF also allows you to use the same username and password for both PACER and electronic filing. As a filer, you will be required to link your CM/ECF filing account to your individual PACER account.

Using a PACER Administrative Account (PAA), your firm can manage the billing for all individual accounts. Learn more about about a PAA.

If you are currently registered to file electronically in a federal court that has announced it will convert to NextGen CM/ECF, you will first need an upgraded PACER account. 

Follow the steps on the "Get Ready for NextGen CM/ECF" page to upgrade your account. 

Register for a new PACER account if you do not have an account. 

Yes. The PACER Service Center offers the PACER Administrative Account (PAA), a consolidated billing and online account management process that allows groups to manage and pay for all charges associated with multiple PACER accounts.

Register for group billing with a PACER Administrative Account. A PACER Administrative Account will only allow you to manage group billing. It will not allow you to log in to access case information.

Read the PACER Administrative Account User Manual for more information.

No. We do not accept registrations by spreadsheet. Users should set up their own accounts. This is recommended (as opposed to someone setting them up for everyone) because the security information and date of birth they enter will be required to reset their password if they forget or misplace it. The PACER Service Center no longer verifies or mails passwords.