For the last few years, we’ve trained thousands (!) of journalists and lawyers on how to traverse the federal court system to look for stories or find similar criminal and civil cases. We’ve also done pop-up trainings for recently laid off reporters and helped nonprofits seeking to expose injustice. For the end of our annual subscriber appeal, we wanted to extend that opportunity to the larger public and also help ensure the sustainability of Court Watch in the long term.
For the first 100 subscribers who upgrade to any paid subscription tier between now and Monday morning, we’ll offer two opportunities in December to attend our online PACER training to learn our tricks of the trade.
The training (a $200 value), typically 45 minutes to an hour, goes from the basics of searching the federal dockets to much more sophisticated searches. You get to see behind the scenes of how our quirky brain brings you the best (and only?) roundup of the most fascinating court records every week. Once you upgrade, just reply to this email that you’d like to attend a training. We’ll send details on when and how to attend in the coming weeks.
If you’re not interested in a PACER training, perhaps just upgrade anyway or consider a one-time donation. We’ve been operating on a shoestring budget for the last four years and are consistently but adorably teetering on insolvency. Help us make sure we can continue to bring transparency to the Courts as we enter our fifth year.
