If you routinely access federal dockets and court documents, you may already know that you can get some documents free from the RECAP Archive, a database of millions of PACER documents and dockets maintained by the Free Law Project. These documents are “donated” by users who purchase them on PACER, then automatically send them to the RECAP archive by means of free browser extensions.
Now there is another new way to add PACER documents to RECAP: simply add “archive@recap.email” to your PACER account so that every document you receive from PACER is also sent to RECAP. This is a great idea – much easier than asking people to install a browser extension.
Here’s more from Bob Abrogi’s LawSites:
Whenever a new document is filed in a case, PACER’s electronic filing system (CM/ECF) automatically sends an email — called a notice of electronic filing, or NEF — to the case’s attorneys of record and any pro se litigants with a link for one free download of the document.
Attorneys can add any number of secondary email addresses for others they wish to also receive their NEFs. Typically, this is used to add other members of the litigation team or other affiliated professionals within a firm.
Now, if you add RECAP as a secondary recipient, every NEF you receive will also go to RECAP, which will automatically download the documents and add them to the archive.
Besides helping to develop RECAP, a benefit of this for legal professionals is that they no longer need to worry about missing the NEF and its one free download. The documents will always be free to download from RECAP.