Opinion
3:18-MC-12
12-18-2023
IN RE APPLICATION FOR EXEMPTION FROM THE ELECTRONIC PUBLIC ACCESS FEES BY JETT PETTUS
ORDER DENYING LIMITED EXEMPTION
DEBRA M. BROWN, CHIEF DISTRICT JUDGE.
Jett Pettus seeks an exemption from the fees imposed by the Electronic Public Access fee schedule adopted by the Judicial Conference of the United States Courts to obtain case information from the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (“PACER”) service. Pettus represents that she is a third-year Economics Ph.D. student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology researching inmate litigation to empirically quantify the relationship between prisoner petitions and correctional facility quality; her focus is on prisoner petition cases filed between 1988 to present, typically under nature of suit codes 510, 530, 535, 540, 550, and 555; the research requires information on the topic of each prisoner filing, the prison name, and the outcomes of the case; and the data will only be used for purposes such research and will not be distributed online or transferred to other individuals.
Because the Court concludes that Pettus, an individual researcher associated with an educational institution, falls within the class of users listed in the fee schedule as being eligible for a fee exemption and that Pettus has demonstrated an exemption is necessary to avoid unreasonable burdens and to promote public access to information, Pettus shall be exempt from the payment of fees for access through PACER to the electronic case files maintained in this Court but only to the extent such use is incurred in the course of conducting the research described above. Pettus shall not be exempt from the payment of fees incurred in connection with other uses of the PACER system in this Court. Accordingly, the following limitations apply:
Pettus shall not have access to any documents that are filed with restricted access or under seal.
1. This fee exemption applies only to Jett Pettus, PACER Account #6032577, and is valid only for the purposes stated above;
2. This fee exemption applies only to the electronic case files of this Court available through the PACER system;
3. By accepting this exemption, Pettus agrees not to sell for profit any data obtained as a result of receiving this exemption;
4. Pettus is prohibited from transferring any data obtained as a result of receiving this exemption, including redistribution through internet-based databases; and
5. This exemption is valid from the date of this order through December 31, 2024.
This exemption may be revoked at the discretion of the Court at any time. A copy of this order shall be sent to the PACER Service Center.
SO ORDERED.