THE BLACK HAND FORUM

chin_gigante wrote: ↑Thu Mar 27, 2025 7:11 am

felice wrote: ↑Thu Mar 27, 2025 5:25 am I am having issues in getting trial documents via pacer/foipa.
Is it possible to go directly to federal tribunals and get physical access to all documets?

Thanks

You can contact each District Court independently to access documents, particularly trial transcripts. Even if you can't access the documents via PACER it's useful to take a note of the docket number if applicable. That will make things easier to locate. Though if you do contact the District Court directly it will be considerably more expensive to access documents than it would be to get them through PACER. If it's from an older case, you'll also potentially have to pay a large fee to retrieve the relevant documents from the archive.

Another annoying thing is that not all District Courts operate in the same way. Some you can contact via email, others only provide phone or FAX contact details. Accepted payment methods also vary. Some accept card payments over the phone, others require checks or money orders to be physically sent to the courthouse. It's quite a frustratingly antiquated system.

felice wrote: ↑Thu Mar 27, 2025 5:25 am I am having issues in getting trial documents via pacer/foipa.
Is it possible to go directly to federal tribunals and get physical access to all documets?

Thanks

Antiliar wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2024 7:32 pm

OmarSantista wrote: ↑Mon Apr 01, 2024 8:46 pm If bonanno refused to go to the commission because 2 members were the messengers instead of three, what other instances known instances are there of that happening. I’ve never read or heard of that rule.

You might want to post your question in a different thread. This one focuses on resources for doing research.

OmarSantista wrote: ↑Mon Apr 01, 2024 8:46 pm If bonanno refused to go to the commission because 2 members were the messengers instead of three, what other instances known instances are there of that happening. I’ve never read or heard of that rule.

chin_gigante wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2024 11:10 am

Tasker wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2024 11:06 am What types of court records are publicly available online? Are actual court transcripts accessible?

I saw a post one time describing what a mob defendant said in their sentencing hearing (federal trial). It wasn’t something you’d find on google, and I doubt they attended in person. I’ve always wondered where someone would find that type of detailed info. Is that was PACER is for?

A lot of court documents and transcripts get put up on PACER, where you can access them for a fee per page (there's also a charge for searching PACER). Not everything is available there though, especially for cases before the mid-2000s.

For documents and transcripts that aren't on PACER, you can request them from the courts themselves, but it's much more expensive to do so.

Tasker wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2024 11:06 am What types of court records are publicly available online? Are actual court transcripts accessible?

I saw a post one time describing what a mob defendant said in their sentencing hearing (federal trial). It wasn’t something you’d find on google, and I doubt they attended in person. I’ve always wondered where someone would find that type of detailed info. Is that was PACER is for?