by Jennifer Emens-Butler, Esq.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court: The Pioneer of Electronic Services
It seems like ages ago when Vermont’s bankruptcy court introduced electronic fil- ing. While it was undoubtedly a trying and difficult transition for members of the court staff and for all practitioners, in the col- lective
practitioner’s memory it appears seamless and fleeting. One day documents were mailed, the next day they were elec- tronically filed. There always seemed to be training sessions available, if needed, but the system was intuitive enough to require little training. Today, regular practitioners before the bankruptcy court can’t imagine bankruptcy practice without it. Among the myriad of benefits, one never knows when the ever-available 11:59:59 PM deadline could prove essential.
The bankruptcy court was also a pioneer in the interactive television arena. Starting as early as the mid-1990’s, the bankruptcy court has held countless hearings via vid- eoconference, now holding court hearings monthly from several contracted Vermont Interactive Television sites (now known as Vermont Interactive Technologies). While interactive television hearings were initially used for all hearings, including evidentia- ry hearings, the interactive television hear- ings are currently available only for routine, non-evidentiary matters. A more recent and lesser known aspect of the bankruptcy court’s electronic servic- es is digital audio recordings of court hear- ings. Introduced in January of 2009, the digital audio recording system replaced the need for in-person appearances for court reporters. Since the onset of its use, the digital audio recordings of court hear- ings have been available by CD for a fee of $30.00 for the convenience of parties. If an official record is requested, written transcripts can be ordered from the court. Court reporters are therefore still neces- sary in order to transcribe the official re- cord for parties requesting it. Several tran- scription services are available.1 After meeting considerable success, the bankruptcy court made the digital audio re- cordings available via the electronic dock- et on May 1, 2011. While the docket post- ings of the audio recordings were only ini- tially available for routine motion calendar events, since November 2011 the record- ings have been made available via docket for all court hearings. The docket option was created for the convenience of par- ties and to increase public access to court hearings. While not the official transcript, recordings available via the docket can be
www.vtbar.org
extremely useful in verifying oral orders and arguments from court hearings, de- spite the common reticence toward hear- ing the sound of one’s own voice. Online access to the digital audio record- ing of each hearing is available via the In- ternet using the judiciary’s Public Access to Court Electronic Records system (PACER). PACER is available to anyone (lawyers and lay-folk alike) by registering with the PAC- ER Service Center either by e-mail at http://
www.pacer.gov or by telephone at (800) 676-6856. There is a fee for each document viewed or audio recording accessed. There is no extra fee for downloading once the item is accessed. Fees are billed quarterly to a credit card the user provides or, upon request and for sufficient reason, an invoice will be sent and payment may be remitted by check. The recording of the hearing is available by locating the case docket in PACER, and by then locating the docket entry for the hearing, organized by date. A loud speak-
er symbol at the beginning of the docket text indicates that an audio recording of the hearing is available. To access the re- cording, click on the underlined document number (different from the loud speaker symbol) between the date and docket en- try and the audio recording will load onto the user’s computer. The user may save the recording within his or her computer the same way one would save any PDF doc- ument. To listen to the hearing the user’s computer need only be equipped with ap- plications for portable document format (PDF) and speakers/sound card. Like any other docket entry, parties to the case will receive the standard “one free look” at the document number rep- resenting the digital audio recording and may download the recording without fee. For non-parties and those parties access- ing the record on more than one occasion, the PACER fee is $3.00 as of April 1, 2012. The U.S. Court’s PACER Service Center is- sues invoices quarterly, however no invoice
THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • SPRING 2012
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