Cost of Pacer? Do I need it?

[elstx]

I see that it costs 8 cents a page, but not understanding the page thing. If I bring something up to look at my case, is it going to charge me for a lot of pages?? When do the charges come?

[elstx]

I was just on there, and figured out the cost and how it works. What am I looking for exactly from now until the 60 day mark?

[StartingOver08]

You are looking for your history - if you download to your hard drive you only have to pull the new history - if any during the 60 day waiting period. Once you get to 60 days, start looking for your discharge.

[laurannm]

FYI, your local courthouse may have free Pacer terminals available for public use.

[elstx]

Thanks, but I think 8 cents a page is a lot cheaper at home than driving to a courthouse, paying for gas, along with $15 to park.

[Flamingo]

Thanks, but I think 8 cents a page is a lot cheaper at home than driving to a courthouse, paying for gas, along with $15 to park.

Some folks have posted on here they racked up several hundred dollars unknowingly on Pacer so it could in the long run be cheaper to drive occasionally and view it free than pay for it. One person had to add over $700 of Pacer charges to her filing. Your attorney can also for free send you printouts upon your request from the Trustee (as we obtained) as to the status of your case. If you file a Chapter 13 your trustee sends you quarterly print outs anyway as to what is going on with your case, what goes in and what is paid out and balances. Pacer is a non-necessity for most filers and creates all sorts of anxiety amongst some users when certain things are posted/appear that are not in layman's terms.

[2Bshinyandnew]

Your attorney can also for free send you printouts upon your request from the Trustee (as we obtained) as to the status of your case.

My ex's attorney would not do this. We asked the day my ex signed the petition and the attorney said my ex would get everything he needed through the USPS, that printouts from PACER were not included in his fee. We were sort of surprised, but it is extra work for the attorney's office, work that wasn't part of what the attorney charged for filing the CH7. I can totally see his point.

THEN, after the petition was filed and we signed up for pacer, we saw issues that needed the attorney's attention ASAP, and WE had to call HIM to let him know. He thanked us because his inaction could have been a problem. It was regarding my ex's intentions on assuming or rejecting his residential lease. Without PACER and vigilance on our part, we could have had a problem, maybe not a big problem, but a problem that might have slowed things up.

For us, the extra stress and learning curve was well worth it. It also gave us a feeling of being more a part of what was happening with the Bankruptcy, even if it was just an illusion.

[HHM]

I generally caution against the use of PACER. It is TOO easy to become OCD (obsessive compulsive) with it. Also, what counts as a page for PACER is simply not intuitive. The .08 per page does not simply refer to down loading documents, it is every query result and the length of that query result; basically, anytime you click ANYTHING on PACER, that is at least .08.

It's like the situation with the 341 meeting, as much as you tell someone that it is a simple, short meeting, and nothing to worry about; nearly everyone freaks out about it. As much as you don't think you will be "That" person when it comes to PACER (checking every hour for updates etc), you probably will be.

[Flamingo]

My ex's attorney would not do this. We asked the day my ex signed the petition and the attorney said my ex would get everything he needed through the USPS, that printouts from PACER were not included in his fee. We were sort of surprised, but it is extra work for the attorney's office, work that wasn't part of what the attorney charged for filing the CH7. I can totally see his point.

THEN, after the petition was filed and we signed up for pacer, we saw issues that needed the attorney's attention ASAP, and WE had to call HIM to let him know. He thanked us because his inaction could have been a problem. It was regarding my ex's intentions on assuming or rejecting his residential lease. Without PACER and vigilance on our part, we could have had a problem, maybe not a big problem, but a problem that might have slowed things up.

For us, the extra stress and learning curve was well worth it. It also gave us a feeling of being more a part of what was happening with the Bankruptcy, even if it was just an illusion.

That's a shame you had to do your attorney's work that you paid him to do cause in the normal course of events he would have taken care of it as the Trustee would have gotten on his case or he would have had to contact the Trustee and said he screwed up. He should have given you a discount! Wouldn't have affected you at all and been handled without you worrying about it. Attorneys can freely access the court's information and email copies to any of their clients as to BK case status. Of course there are some attorneys that won't do that but most will send them to you if you ask for them. The Trustee sends out reports in the normal course of events on a periodic basis as to one's case. After going through a Chapter 13 and paying our attorney for all the work involved, I and my hubby did not feel we had to monitor our situation as our attorney took care of everything and contacted us if he needed anything or had a question. I agree with HHM.

[HHM]

Flamingo...actually, attorneys are charged the same .08 cents per page.

[StartingOver08]

Also, there is not going to be any attorney, no matter how attentive, that is going to follow the case as closely as the debtor involved! The attorney has X amount of BK cases ongoing simultaneously - the debtor has one.

If you can control yourself looking at your case and maybe similar cases, then it is better to get PACER and do the reviews yourself.

[HHM]

Also, there is not going to be any attorney, no matter how attentive, that is going to follow the case as closely as the debtor involved! The attorney has X amount of BK cases ongoing simultaneously - the debtor has one.

If you can control yourself looking at your case and maybe similar cases, then it is better to get PACER and do the reviews yourself.

Well, that depends. An attorney receives an email when anything is filed in the BK court. Being realistic, what may seem like an emergency to a debtor, is usually not a real emergency. There is nothing that can happen in BK court that has a response time of under 2 weeks (and usually the response time is 30 days).

[Flamingo]

Flamingo...actually, attorneys are charged the same .08 cents per page.

The copies the attorney got/sent for/to us did not come from PACER but from another source that was directly related to the BK court for our district and/or trustee. Do BK attorneys with active cases access another source with the BK Court/Trustee to obtain their information and not have to utilize PACER?

[2Bshinyandnew]

That's a shame you had to do your attorney's work that you paid him to do cause in the normal course of events he would have taken care of it as the Trustee would have gotten on his case or he would have had to contact the Trustee and said he screwed up. He should have given you a discount! Wouldn't have affected you at all and been handled without you worrying about it. Attorneys can freely access the court's information and email copies to any of their clients as to BK case status. Of course there are some attorneys that won't do that but most will send them to you if you ask for them. The Trustee sends out reports in the normal course of events on a periodic basis as to one's case. After going through a Chapter 13 and paying our attorney for all the work involved, I and my hubby did not feel we had to monitor our situation as our attorney took care of everything and contacted us if he needed anything or had a question. I agree with HHM.

Giving a discount would have meant giving money back, and, er...well, just a big LOL to that! The attorney my ex used had similar thoughts about PACER as HHM. If you check pacer and note the date that anything was last filed, there is no need to rack up charges unless something new is posted, and luckily you don't need to pay to see that!

Personally, I think using PACER is more helpful than harmful. The more you understand about your own bankruptcy case, the better.

Perhaps if attorney's know their clients are likely to use PACER, or bring up PACER at some point during the BK process, they (the attorney) can have some pre-printed tips or instructions about flags that are common in the district your filing in or what the typical docket text entries are. That way when those panicky phone calls and e-mails come in wanting to know why the trustee is praying about distributions, the attorney's office can just send out the info via snail or e-mail. Every docket entry is usually something the attorney expects to happen, or is likely to happen anyway.

In this day and age, it's very likely a BK client is going to find their way to PACER. If a person has internet, is savvy enough to get their insolvent butts to a BK attorney, they are savvy enough to find PACER.

[Mi Bankruptcy]

I have been checking every two weeks. The first time I logged in I downloaded all my documents ( documents that I already had). Of course, I didn't know that. Now when I log in I query for "updated being listed first". If nothing has changed I log off. I have looked to see if any creditors made any claims/objections