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The Judiciary Branch of the Federal government will pay $125 million dollars to stop a class action lawsuit filed against it by several nonprofit groups representing users of the Public Access to Electronic Court Records system (PACER), alleging users were charged unnecessary fees to access the public system. The settlement agreement was confirmed by the Plaintiffs on Tuesday, in D.C. federal court.

To gain the court’s formal approval of the agreement, the class members advised the court that the deal would give users "100 cents on the dollar" and would pay users at least $350 in PACER fees that were paid from April 2010 to May 2018. Users that paid more than $350 will receive a pro-rated share of the remaining funds.

Not only has the Judiciary Branch agreed to the monetary relief, but it has also agreed to do away with PACER fees for 75% of its users moving forward. This case has also garnered the attention of Congress to take action in eliminating the fees altogether, plaintiffs said on Tuesday in their effort to have the agreement confirmed by the court.

This settlement agreement comes after a year of litigation and contentious disputes fought in district and appellate courts. Both courts have found the arguments on each side, to have been excessive.

In 2016, three nonprofit groups, the National Consumer Law Center and Alliance for Justice, Alliance for Justice, and the National Veterans Legal Services Program, filed a class action lawsuit in D.C. federal court, alleging PACER was charging excessive fees for the public’s use of the PACER database, and that under the E-Government Act of 2002, these charges exceeded the amount permitted by law.

This case is filed as National Veterans Legal Services Program et al. v. the U.S., case number 1:16-CV-00745, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The class members are represented by attorneys Jonathan E. Taylor and Deepak Gupta of Gupta Wessler PLLC, William H. Narwold, Charlotte E. Loper, and Meghan S.B. Oliver of Motley Rice LLC.

The government is represented by attorneys Jeremy S. Simon, Robert Aaron Caplen, and William Mark Nebeker of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and Brian J. Field of Schaerr Jaffe LLP.

The lawsuit alleged that the U.S. government’s actions were tantamount to a violation of law in its demand for these excessive fees. The complaint argued that the fees collected went beyond what was needed to cover the cost to maintain the PACER database and platform and to provide the public with access to records.