UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN
IN RE: APPLICATION FOR EXEMPTION Administrative Order
FROM THE ELECTRONIC PUBLIC No. 25-MS- 077
ACCESS FEES BY STEFAN SAVAGE
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This matter is before the Court upon the application and request by Stefan Savage for
exemption from the fees imposed by the Electronic Public Access fee schedule adopted by the
Judicial Conference of the United States Courts.
The Court finds that Stefan Savage, a computer science professor associated with
University of California at San Diego, falls within the class of users listed in the fee schedule as
being eligible for a fee exemption. Additionally, Savage has demonstrated that an exemption is
necessary in order to avoid unreasonable burdens and to promote public access to information.
Accordingly, Savage shall be exempt from the payment of fees for access via PACER to
the electronic case files maintained in this Court, to the extent such use is incurred in the course
of researching the use of genAI in federal trial courts by empirically measuring the incidents of
“hallucinated” legal citations in the contemporary period (2025) versus the control period before
the introduction of genAI tool (2019).
Savage shall not be exempt from the payment of fees incurred in connection with other
uses of the PACER system in this Court. Additionally, the following limitations apply:
1. This fee exemption applies only to Stefan Savage (PACER Account #8049601),
and is valid only for the purposes stated above;
2. This fee exemption applies only to the electronic case files of this Court that are
available through the PACER system;
3. By accepting this exemption, Savage agrees not to sell for profit any data obtained
as a result of receiving this exemption;
4. Savage is prohibited from transferring any data obtained as a result of receiving this
exemption, including redistribution via internet-based databases;
5. This exemption is valid from 8/19/2025 through 8/19/2026.
This Order may be revoked at the discretion of the Court at any time. A copy of this Order
shall be sent to the PACER Service Center.
FOR THE COURT:
Dated: August 28, 2025
HALA Y. JARBOU
CHIEF UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
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