Pilot project: federal court audio online

The Administrative Office of the U. S. Courts announced yesterday that 2 federal courts (the U.S. District Court in Nebraska and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina) have become the first part of a pilot project to make audio recordings of courtroom proceedings publicly available online. Three other courts – the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Maine, and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama – will join the pilot project later this summer. The courts have integrated their recording and Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) systems to make some audio files available the same way written files have long been available on the Internet. The files will be available through the PACER system; the courts provide a brief video of how to obtain the files.