If you have ever pulled a federal court document, then you are familiar with Pacer. Pacer’s critics are many and prone to point out the software’s numerable flaws including its arcane UI and user costs. Luckily, we are riding a wave of programmers and entrepreneurs who have been willing to improve upon this outdated interface (see my previous write-up of DkT). The latest is the impressive Pacer Pro, which, as Robert Ambrogi writes in his excellent review of Pacer Pro in the March 2014 issue of ABAJournal (available here) “provides universal search[ing], more robust search tools, more informative search results, and better ways to manage documents and downloads”. He’s right, this is a vast improvement on the Pacer UI–and it’s free! Here are some of the really good things Pacer Pro does:

• Enables batch downloading—for example, if you received a request to download 20 documents out of a case, rather than having to download them all individually (like you would on Pacer), you can select all 20 documents and batch download them with a single click (this includes requests with exhibits too):

• Names files in a useful manner—Pacer’s default file naming convention is nonsensical. Pacer Pro names files in a logical manner. Here’s an example of a default name:

• Saves your research trail

• Docket text is Boolean, wildcard, and proxy search enabled

Sandbox away and kiss the old Pacer goodbye!