ēgriz

Do you enjoy my posts pointing and laughing at terrible attorneys?

Do you like news that is sourced from original legal filings?

Do you think the public should have not just the right, but the practical ability, to access public records?

Well, do I have an opportunity for you!

In the U.S. even though (most) federal court records are public documents, it costs money to actually access these documents - 10 cents a page!

This can add up fast when you are talking about legal filings. For example, if you followed along with my recent posts about Sir Clownshoes, his response to the Court's Show Cause order was 112 pages, including exhibits. The reason I was able to make those posts without paying the U.S. government $11 was because of a wonderful site called CourtListener (https://www.courtlistener.com/). They have a browser extension that automatically adds court documents that the user purchases from PACER (the federal site that costs money) to their public site (https://free.law/recap). That way, only one person has to pay $11, instead of everyone single person who wants to point and laugh.

What does this have to do with you?

CourtListener recently launched a new project that allows users to indicate documents that they need/want access to, but cannot pay for themselves, their "Pray and Pay" Project (https://www.courtlistener.com/help/pray-and-pay/)

Anyone can register for a PACER account. (https://pacer.uscourts.gov/register-account/pacer-case-search-only) (You don't need to be an attorney, or even in the U.S.! You do need to give your name, DOB, address, and other contact information, however.) And every three months, you can download up to $30 worth of documents - that is, 300 pages, for free.

That means, you - yes you! - can register for a PACER account, download the RECAP extension, and then, four times a year, help provide researches, litigants, interested parties, and shitposters alike access to public records! All without having to pay a cent!

Alternatively, if you need or want access to a public court document, but don't have the funds/can't make a PACER account for some reason, you can request the document through CourtListener. (You do still need to register with CourtListener, but it requires far less information.)

As of the time of this post, there are 1,007 pending requests for documents. Just 17 people could fulfill all those requests, right now, for free.

Introducing a new promotion that will be available to both adults and children at its restaurants nationwide, 24-hour diner chain Denny’s announced this week that free pancakes would be provided to customers who take their fighting outside. “We know our customers love coming to Denny’s to participate in violent late-night brawls, and now those guests will be treated to a complimentary short stack as a thank-you for moving the bloodshed out of the restaurant and into the parking lot,” said company spokesperson Tricia Kim, who added that patrons watching the melee from inside a participating Denny’s location were welcome to bang the windows and yell “Fight! Fight! Fight!” in encouragement.

[ survey.gendercensus.com ]

The 13th annual international gender census, collecting information about the language we use to refer to ourselves and each other, is now open until 13th August 2026.

It’s short and easy, for most participants it takes 5 minutes or less.

After the survey is closed I’ll process the results and publish a spreadsheet of the data and a report summarising the main findings. Then anyone can use them for academic or business purposes, self-advocacy, tracking the popularity of language over time, and just feeling like we’re part of a huge and diverse community.

If you think you might have friends and followers who’d be interested, please do reblog this blog post, and share the survey URL by email or at AFK social groups or on other social networks. Every share is extremely helpful!

Survey URL: https://survey.gendercensus.com

The survey is open to anyone anywhere who speaks English and feels that the gender binary doesn’t fully describe their experience of themselves and their gender(s) or lack thereof.

Thank you so much!

[ Link to survey ]

PS: You can see some regularly-updated statistics about incoming data here, with lots of demography and graphs to peruse!