As a coder in illinois who's currently trying to implement/ implemented a PACER like system for 70 of the 102 counties. Cost is really not a problem. Who pays the cost is, and most attorneys at this time are not big fans of tech. We're starting to get some success in the state, but it's slow coming. We have better luck with out of county Attorneys than local ones, since they can't just walk across the street to file something. In the last 5 years, a large number of our courts have started scanning everything, and in the last year or so, we've had a good amount of success at getting them to put all of the documents online. Currently it's only the attorneys of record who can see those documents though due to IL supreme court rules.
Your calendar thing cracks me up though, we implemented and ical feed for all of our courts 10+ years ago. This is per attorney or judge, or police officer btw.
Of the 70 counties where this is available, we have 1 user of it..... out of 74692 attorneys. I keep hoping that the younger generation of attorneys, and their secretaries) coming into office in the last few years will have higher technical expectations than the old farts who are leaving, but only time will tell.
I guess my point is that the tech is there, the courts have put it into place and paid for it, but the attorneys just don't have the desire to use it, much less share the cost.