WASHINGTON-The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and the Federal Judiciary are launching a one-year pilot program providing free public access to court opinions through GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys). The joint project was approved by the Judicial Conference of the United States and GPO's Congressional oversight committee, the Joint Committee on Printing. When fully implemented, the pilot will include up to 42 courts. The Judiciary continually has sought ways to enhance public access to court opinions. Free access to opinions in all Federal courts is currently available via the Judiciary's Public Access to Court Electronic Records service (PACER). Building on that success, staff from the Administrative Office of the United States Courts met with GPO management to explore making opinions available through FDsys, which can provide the public with a robust search engine that can search common threads across opinions and courts.  The public will be able to access court opinions in the next several months through GPO's Federal Digital System:  www.fdsys.gov

"GPO's partnership with the Federal Judiciary on this pilot program is another example of how the agency is becoming the digital information platform for the entire Federal Government," said Superintendent of Documents Mary Alice Baish.  "We are excited to add these important court opinions to our digital repository, providing the public with quick and easy access to the workings of the Federal Judiciary."

The twelve participating pilot courts are the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second and Eighth Circuits; the U.S. District Courts for the Districts of Minnesota, Rhode Island, Maryland, Idaho and Kansas, the Northern District of New York, and the Northern District of Alabama; and the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts for the District of Maine, the Southern District of Florida, and the Southern District of New York.