My point was that PACER documents are not inherently useful to the public -- edited to make that more clear.

Several people have already pointed out that there are also malicious uses for this data that could negatively impact normal people. Do you want all your neighbors and potential employers to know you've filed for bankruptcy? And would you want to give them completely open access to all court filings in your name?

>Do you want all your neighbors and potential employers to know you've filed for bankruptcy? And would you want to give them completely open access to all court filings in your name?

Isn't that a completely separate question? You can argue that things like that should be sealed, but if they're not sealed then they're a matter of public record and the government should publish them for free on the internet.

> Do you want all your neighbors and potential employers to know you've filed for bankruptcy? And would you want to give them completely open access to all court filings in your name?

Yes. Isn't this supposed to be public information? Corporations know more about us from our credit rating and other private DBs than this information.

> Do you want all your neighbors and potential employers to know you've filed for bankruptcy?

That's a fair point and I certainly wouldn't but that's really a different matter as AnthonyMouse pointed out. My personal opinion is that I don't want this data readily accessible but I do see value in it being so.

We don't really know that they're not inherently useful to the public, though. As parent points out, there may be use cases that only become feasible once the information is freely available.