U.S. Agencies pay millions for public docs.

• Position: OPEN RECORDS - Brief article

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A Freedom of Information ct request has revealed hat the Department of Justice (DOJ) paid $4.2 million in 2009 to the federal court system for access to its electronic court filing system, which contains public documents.

Open government advocate Carl Malamud, who requested the information, said an open source repository of U.S. legal records--a project he is spearheading called Law.gov--could ultimately save the government $1 billion.

Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) is the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts' search system that charges citizens, journalists, lawyers, and even government officials 8 cents a page to view court filings in U.S. District Courts.

The DOJ is not alone in using the system. The IRS spent $950,000 in 2008 to see public court documents, according to Wired.com.

PACER users cited many things they disliked about the system, such as that the search function is detailed and inflexible, according to Wired, and the system cannot notify a user...