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govinfo:USCOURTS-pawd-2_09-mc-00239-38

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania · 2025-05-04

· GavelSight synced 2026-09-06 03:47:32

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 ) 
IN RE: PACER FEE EXEPMTIONS ) 
 ) Misc. No. 09-239 
 ELLIE HYDE, ) 
 (PACER Account xxxx742), ) 
 Movant. ) 
 ) 
 
 ORDER 
 
 This matter is before the C ourt upon the application of Ellie Hyde (“Hyde”) 
for exemption from the fees imposed by the Electronic Public Access fee schedule 
adopted by the Judicial Conference of the United States Courts (ECF No. 175). 
 This C ourt f inds t hat Hyde is a n individual researcher associated with an 
educational institution and, therefore, falls within the class of users listed in the fee 
schedule as being eligible fo r a fee exemption. Additionally, Hyde has 
demonstrated that an exemption is necessary in order to avoid unreasonable burdens 
and to promote public access to information. 
Accordingly, Hyde shall be exempt from the payment of fees for acces s via 
the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system (the “PACER System”) to the 
electronic case files m aintained by this Court, to the extent such use is incurred in 
the course of the defined scholarly research project described in the Application for 
Exemption from the Judicial Conference’s Electronic Public Acces s Fee s in the 

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United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania , including the 
attachment (the “Application”) (ECF No. 175). 
The Court finds that the research project described in the Application is 
intended solely for scholarly research and is li mited in scope in that the amount of 
exempt access requested is narrowly tailored to meet the project’s needs. 
Hyde shall not be exempt from the payment of fees incurred in co nnection 
with other uses of the PACER System in this Court. 
Additionally, the following limitations apply: 
1) This fee exemption ap plies only to Hyde and is valid only for the 
scholarly research project described in the Application; 
2) This fee exemption applies only to the electronic case files of this 
Court that are available through the PACER System; 
3) By accepting this exemption, Hyde agrees not to sell for profit any 
data obtained as a result of receiving this exemption; 
4) Hyde is prohibited from transferring any data obtained as a res ult of 
receiving this exemption, including redistribution via Inte rnet based 
databases. This prohibition does not prevent Hyde from relying upon 
the data obtained as a result of receiving this exemption in or in 
connection with the scholarly research project described in the 
Application; 
5) This exemption is valid until May 31, 2026. 

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 T his exemption may be revoked at the discretion of the Court at any time. The 
Clerk of Court of the United States District Court for the Western District of 
Pennsylvania, or h er designee, may periodically review the usage of Hyde’s exempt 
PACER System account during the term of this exemption. 
 
Dated: May 4, 2025 BY THE COURT: 
 
 
 /s/ Mark R. Hornak 
 Mark R. Hornak 
 Chief United States District Judge 
 
 
cc: PACER Service Center (via email) 
 Administrative Office of the United States Courts, 
 Multi-Court Exemptions Office (via email) 
 Ellie Hyde (via email) 
 
 

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