Protected: PacerPro Policy Regarding Access to State Case Data

SAN FRANCISCO, August 18, 2023 - PacerPro is committed to delivering uniformly high-quality state and federal court notification services. We do this to help our customers fulfill their obligations to their clients and the courts. We know, however, that state courts have varying rules, practices, and technology systems. Differences among these systems (sometimes even within a given court) mean that courts vary significantly with respect to access to sensitive or restricted case information.

What does that mean for PacerPro’s StatePro service?

For each state court data system that PacerPro supports, we adhere to the following two principles:

• We restrict access to state case data to law firms whose attorneys have appeared in those cases.
• We endeavor not to access or process restricted or sealed documents.

Policy Details

PacerPro has adopted the following policies concerning sensitive state case data: 

1. Only law firms of record may receive StatePro notifications for state court cases.
2. PacerPro users whose firms have not appeared in a case cannot receive StatePro emails. In addition, unlike our federal Smart Docket service, PacerPro does not enable online access to state court documents.

2. We do not deliver state court filings that a party or the court has flagged as sealed, confidential, or otherwise restricted.
3. When our system encounters such documents, we send case teams an email notification without the underlying filing attached.

3. The firm controls what data PacerPro receives and from which courts.
4. Occasionally, publicly filed documents mistakenly contain confidential information. This occurs when an attorney or case team labels the filing as “sealed” or “redacted” but fails to properly redact information and/or incorrectly properly designates a confidential document as a public document on CM/ECF. Such documents are then made immediately available to the public on PACER and a host of third-party services, including PacerPro.

4. We do deliver StatePro notifications for documents that have been served by a party but not filed (or not yet filed) with the court (e.g., “Notification of Service” emails).
5. This part of the StatePro service enables our users to receive real-time notifications of important activity in their cases, prior to their filings' acceptance by the court. However, as noted above, only law firms with attorneys of record in the cases who have been served with the documents, can receive StatePro emails.

5. PacerPro immediately deletes inadvertent filings.
6. PacerPro’s policy is to immediately delete inadvertently filed documents from our system as soon as anyone contacts us about the error. PacerPro also informs the individual as to other third-party services that may have copies of the inadvertently filed document (e.g., Lexis, CourtLink, Westlaw, Bloomberg, FastCase/DocketAlarm, DocketBird, CourtDrive) and reminds them that the document must be taken down from the PACER website as well. Note we provide night and weekend service.

6. PacerPro’s security procedures meet or exceed best practices in the legal technology industry.
7. As the legal industry continues to rely more on technology to streamline operations and deliver services, it is increasingly important for legal technology companies to prioritize cybersecurity and data privacy. Our information security practices, policies, procedures, and operations meet or exceed the best practices in the legal technology industry.
8. PacerPro is also SOC 2 – Type 2 Certified. SOC 2 (Service Organization Control 2) is a certification issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to companies that can demonstrate they have implemented and adhered to effective controls to ensure the security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of their client’s data.

7. PacerPro prioritizes professional ethics in pursuit of advancing legal technology for the benefit of our clients and the profession at large.
8. The ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct require that, in order to “maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology...” PacerPro recognizes that as attorneys and legal professionals, we have a duty to leverage the latest technology and automation to deliver cost-effective, efficient services that save law firms and their clients significant time, money, and resources.

If you would like more information about the topics addressed in this policy, please reach out to us at any time at support@pacerpro.com.