Oh My God! Pacer

[newstart]

I received my pacer statement and it is $78.80 I am going to have to stop using pacer, I have got to stop checking that thing. I can't believe this!!!!!

[sunshine08]

Man O Man - I thought $20 was bad. What did you do??? Or I guess the proper question is What didn't you look at????

Read my lips: Restraint - Restraint
Use restraint in the future....

[StaciMM]

$23.76, but I knew it would be in that area... I looked at a bunch of cases filed before mine to see if they were discharged yet...

[newstart]

According to my statement it said that I viewed 972 pages from october to december, I think you guys should help me out because you guys told me about it!

[bkfiler]

mine was $1493.04 dont complain.

[StaciMM]

Post a screen shot of your REAL bill. I might just win the pool if you're in the $150-155 range.

mine was $1493.04 dont complain.

[SinkingFast]

I don't have a clue what mine will be, but I imagine it's gonna be high.

One webpage I looked at, PACER considered to be 49 billable pages. That webpage was just the list of BK cases one particular attny had filed. 49 pages did not count clicking on any of the case links.

The documents of one case I looked at, in .pdf format, PACER said was 34 pages but I would only be charged for 30 pages. How nice of them to give me a small discount!! LOL

There's a little box at the bottom of each page on PACER that tells you how many pages you are being charged for each time you access a webpage. When I noticed it the first time, I started paying closer attention to how much I was clicking. One webpage does not always equal 1 page of PACER billing. I also tried accessing my account balance to see what I had run up so far in the way of a bill and it shows $0. I guess I won't know how much I owe PACER until they dink my Debit Card for payment. UGH!!

Needless to say, I'm staying off of PACER until I need to look at for my own BK info.

Staci,........... How in the world did you look at a bunch of cases and get such a low bill?? Just from the page counts I kept track of for the few cases I looked at, I'm way over what you were billed. I'll probably be more like NewStart. Hopefully not worse.

[bkfiler]

login here instead:

https://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/psco/cgi-bin/psclogin.pl

go to the section listed 'Review Detailed Transaction History'.

then put in dates way before you started this mess and a date past today like next month.

to make it easier select 'Totals Only' option and it will give you your total amount for all courts everywhere that you searched.

[StaciMM]

SinkingFast-they sent out an email, w/ a PDF attachment to let you know how much you'd be billed. I got mine this morning.

I didn't use the report function-it brings back alot of material, and I don't understand how the list can be so many pages but I found that out last month. Instead, I looked up case by case. I figured that if my case # was 05-555555 then people who filed before me would have a lower case # and people who filed after me would have a higher case #. When you search by case #, you get to see the summary page for free and that shows 'last file' date or something like that. So, if I put in 05-554555, I'd see the summary of the case filed 1000 #'s earlier than mine. It would show me the date they filed, and when the most recent update/change had happened. If it said date filed 9/1, last entry 10/15, I figured they hadn't hadn't been discharged. I'd only look at more info (and then be charged $.08) if the last entry was more than 3 months after their file date.

[newstart]

I agree with you Sinkingfast I don't need to view pacer right now, I'll start looking when it gets close to my discharge, my pocketbook needs a break.

[bkfiler]

you can use pacer and still not get charged. all you need to do is look at the starting header. it has a title called 'Date Of Last Filiing'. if that changes then something was added. if not then no need to look further.

[StaciMM]

Confession time-I learned this 'trick' from Bkfiler. I think for it to work, you just have to 'search' by something specific. Searching by last name won't do it, as that will return a list of all the 'Smith' filings. I searched by my file #, and then other file #'s.

you can use pacer and still not get charged. all you need to do is look at the starting header. it has a title called 'Date Of Last Filiing'. if that changes then something was added. if not then no need to look further.

[bkfiler]

umm, just to be clear you want to enter your social security number only or cas numer (which is a pain) only so it only brings back your case heading only.

[StaciMM]

I wasn't sure if SS# would work the same, without a charge, since technically a person's SS# could be in there more than once. And, if you want to look up ones filed before you-to see if they are discharged, etc.-case # is needed.

Doesn't everyone know their case #, or am I alone on that one?

umm, just to be clear you want to enter your social security number only or cas numer (which is a pain) only so it only brings back your case heading only.

[SinkingFast]

TY, BK for the tip.

But when I tried it, I got nothing. I happened to check the FAQ's about billing and now I know why. I just registered a week or so ago. PACER updates billing on the 15th of each month. I'll have to wait a few more days to see how much I've spent.