US judiciary to fast-track court records system upgrade after hacking

By Nate Raymond

March 10 (Reuters) - Federal judicial policymakers on Tuesday outlined plans to accelerate the development of a new, more secure electronic case management system, saying a major hack of the system last year made clear the need to upgrade the aging system.

The long-in-the-works modernization project was a key focus of the semi-annual meeting of the U.S. Judicial Conference, the judiciary's top policymaking body, which met behind closed doors at the U.S. Supreme Court's building in Washington, D.C.

U.S. Circuit Judge Michael Scudder, who chairs the Judicial Conference's Information Technology Committee, at a press briefing following the meeting, said the judiciary has "embarked upon an effort to try to find ways to get this project done faster because we need to."

"Some cyber breaches that we experienced last summer really punctuated the necessity for accelerating the project," he said.

That hacking was disclosed in July 2025 and raised concerns in part because of reports that data about confidential informants and other sealed case files may have been accessed by foreign actors, following an earlier breach in 2020.

The modernization plans involve testing initial software components at six courts this year, with the goal of implementing parts of it in district courts nationwide next year, followed by appellate and bankruptcy courts.

Scudder said the expectation was that the "overwhelming" majority of updates will be done within two to three years, faster than the judiciary originally expected.

A key component of the project is to improve the search functionality of the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system, through which the public can review documents uploaded to the electronic filing system.

Lawmakers for years have pushed the judiciary as part of any overhaul to make PACER free. Users are currently charged $0.10 per page to download documents up to a $3 cap, though the judiciary waives quarterly fees of $30 or less.

But eliminating fees is not on the table for now, as about 85% of the modernization project's funding comes from PACER fees, said U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove, who chairs the Committee on Court Administration and Case Management.

"I think the expectation is, even if we have a longer-term aspiration to make it largely free for those who are using it, in the short term, we do see it as a source of funding," he said.

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