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The Federal Communications Commission has outlined a plan it will be submitting to Congress aimed at “using Web-based technology to drive civic engagement with the government.”

Among the FCC’s plan is the recommendation that federal court documents be made available free of charge.  These documents are currently available on the archaic PACER system, which charges users 8 cents per page viewed.  PACER has been criticized in the past for charging fees to view documents which are in the public domain.

While making access to PACER free won’t likely result in significant cost savings, it could be a sign of a trend that will reduce legal expenses.  The addition of Bloomberg Law, which competes with Lexis and West, will likely drive down research costs as firms begin hiring associates that became familiar with the new system through free trials given to law students.  And, more generally, young associates are more tech savvy than the older generation, and more likely to use free resources, such as websites maintained by administrative agencies and state courts, which are becoming increasingly easy to locate thanks to Google and Wikipedia’s references and external link sections.

Associates and partners alike need to embrace free resources and push for reduced research costs.  Sure, they pass the expense on to the client, but at the end of the day the client only has so much money to spend.  Less money being spent on research means more money can be spend on billable hours.