Pacer Problem...

[JoeBankrupt33]

BkinTX,

You can avoid paying anything at all if your total PACER bill is less than $10. If your balance at the end of the quarter is less than $10, then the balance will carry forward to the next quarter. If you never exceed $10, you will never have to pay.

So, if you really need to look at something on your case, you can do it without paying.

As for a previous post, I also filed Pro Se, and PACER has been invaluable to me.

[queenfluff]

I registered and checked Pacer once last week because I thought i had been filed last week and I was pissed off at the fact that I had to pay .08 cents to look at a blank Internet page that said "No Matches Found". No fair, you should only be charged if something appears there. (Simple programming code "search results = 0 than billable pages amount = 0".) Big bummer. Definatley turned me off to Pacer.

Anyhow my case got filed this week (apparently) so it should be in there now but I still don't think I am gonna go in there and peak at my case. The whole billing thing seems a bit sneaky if you ask me. You could go searching and clicking around in there looking at this and that and than all of a sudden you got a big huge bill and you feel like you hardly looked at anything. From what I read on here anyhow - people are getting some pretty hefty bills.

Like dingdong said - We are bankrupt so WTF? I think it should be free for us clients to look at. Just another way for the system to squeeze more money out of ya.

For the people who are filing without lawyers, maybe this is the sneaky way to get you to pay something for your BK?

[JoeBankrupt33]

It's really not that bad. When you are in the system, and you do a search for you, then you are not charged for the search, it just pops up your case.

Then, you take a look at the Date of Last filing. If that date hasn't changed, there is no reason to look at anything else since nothing has been added. If the date changes, view your case history to see what's been added (this will cost 8 to 16 cents depending on how much info is in the history). Also, when you click history, I recommend selecting "show docket text" too.

If you are looking for proof of claims, this will not change the date of last filing. You will need to go to the claims section to check it out.

If you click on a document number to view it, PACER will pop up a window telling you how much the document will cost and it will ask you if you want to accept the charges. If you do look at a document, save it to your computer so you never have to pay for it again.

Pretty much, if you are looking only at your case, you will not rack up a hugh bill.

[queenfluff]

hmm, I just did a query by sns because I didn't have a case number yet and I got "sorry no matches" but it said billable pages = .08 cents which seems like it was saying "we are charging you 8 cents for the query result of a blank page".

I thought I remember reading that if you did it by query that you were not charged for the query but only to look at the pages if you open a search result. In my case I had no pages and no search result to look at but still looks like I got charged which I didn't like. Yeah, I know only 8 cents but still seemed wrong to me. It is more of the idea of it than the money that bugged me.

I can see how if you are filing by yourself it is quite helpful though since you definately need to keep track of what is up with your case. I have a lawyer and my case is pretty no frills and no asset so my guess is there won't be alot up there for me to look at that I don't already know about anyhow.

But I still think that if you are the person going BK that some part of it should be free. Like maybe you can have a special number assigned to you once you file so you can at least look at YOUR case for free.

As a programmer, to me, the system seemed pretty antiquated and that it could be set up a bit better and that the whole interface was not very user friendly. I used the instructions I got on the forum to find where to go. The Pacer site doesn't tell you too much about how to navigate the website. I honestly couldn't figure the thing out by just going to the site - I need the directions from a forum user to figure it out.

Oh, well just my "8 cents" worth anyhow...

[JoeBankrupt33]

No, I agree with you that a bad search shouldn't cost money. But, when I do a query for my social security number, I don't get charged for the search. One time, I tried searching for another case by their names, and I misspelled the name and was charged $0.08. When I corrected their name, I wasn't charged for the query.

I'm pretty sure the reason for this is so the marketing firms can't gather a ton of info for free or waste time bogging down the system. These firms must do searches with broad search categories to find out who is in BK.

[crazycat]

Leave Pacer To The Pros.....

Before My filing chap 7 (July 2008) $150k+ discharged Nov 2008.. I came to these boards daily for months and received very helpful information in regards to all aspects of bankruptcy...but I soon came to the conclusion that trying to monitor my case (through Pacer) would be distressing as I had seen that too much information posted on Pacer was being misinterpreted or speculated upon (and large bills accumulated) and that unless I was a "Pro"-trying to decipher the language and terms would be near impossible...so while I had registered on Pacer-I never once visited after I filed.(I was tempted, but I was resolved not to stress out).. My case sailed through in normal fashion and I never worried needlessly about issues that "might" have been posted on Pacer (but unable to understand)...Trying to Control everything is impossible so why waste the time,energy and Money on Pacer!!

[lrprn]

It's important to keep in mind that PACER is not designed to be used by anyone outside the court system - it's specifically designed to meet the courts' needs, not our needs. It's just because it's a government website that we citizens are allowed to join at no cost. Even the lawyers and courts pay the $0.08/page charge.

[Mi Bankruptcy]

How to use Pacer

I see...

I am curious but I also don't want to spend money unnecessarily. Thanks so much for the input!

Here is a pretty nice page on How to use PACER It has screen shots. My case is getting ready to close and it cost me $15.00. However, if you can keep your cost below $10.00 you not supposed to get charged.

The only thing I recommend is you check your case initially. Download all your "officially filed" documents and review them. Then visit the site and don't check or download anything unless the date has changed from the last time you viewed the site. This will keep your costs down. The site above also has list of Flags for PACER.