Can I contribute PDFs I bought on PACER before I knew about RECAP?
People regularly ask us if they can contrbute documents to RECAP that they bought from PACER before they knew about the RECAP initiative.
Unfortunately this isn't something we support, for a number of reasons. The simple one is that it would create authenticity problems — how do we know you haven't tampered with a document? — but it's also just very hard technically to figure out how to add these PDFs to the right cases, sort out the metadata and get it done.
On rare occasions, we will work with organizations that have sizeable collections of PACER documents, but even then it only works if those documents were gathered via an automated system.
Sorry!
What should I do now?
While we can't help with the items you already have, you can help starting now.
To contribute PACER documents to us going forward, install the RECAP extension. Once you do, anything you buy on PACER will go to us automatically.
mike