Court Briefs, Dockets & Oral Arguments Research Guide: Finding Dockets & Court Documents

The law library does NOT reimburse for PACER, which charges $.10 per page VIEWED. If you need to research court records and suspect that you might need access to PACER, please schedule a meeting with a reference librarian. We can discuss alternative sources for court records as well as sources for funding in the event that you need to use PACER.

Faculty and faculty research assistants are encouraged to use all alternative methods to find docket information, information regarding that is posted here. If the alternative means for finding information are not sufficient, please contact your faculty liaison to see if they can be of assistance in running a PACER search on your behalf. And, if the project is too complex for a librarian-managed search, the librarian liaison can assist the faculty member in setting up their own PACER account with the faculty member’s faculty research account funds.

A docket shows you all of the court materials involved in the case. It is basically a schedule of a case's proceedings used by courts to track all events, hearings, filings, and decisions in a case. In most dockets you will find: 

• The Docket Number: This number is the court’s official identifying number for the case.
• Nature of Suit: This code on federal district, circuit and bankruptcy court dockets gives you a general idea of the main issues involved in the case.
• Parties and Attorneys: This section lists all the parties involved. Next to a party’s name is the name of the party’s attorneys and the contact information of each attorney.
• Docket Proceedings: This is the list of events that occur in the case. It also contains links to the documents filed with the court and by the court (such as orders and decisions)

Example of a docket: This is the first page of the docket from Hastings Christian Fellowship v. Martinez:

Various websites and databases provide access to court dockets. Usually you will need the case name or the docket number to locate your case.

It might be difficult to search by docket number because docket numbers are not in a standard format, for example they may or may not include a number for the year and they may contain a mix of numbers, letters and symbols such as parentheses, slashes and dashes. 

Below is a list of good websites and databases for locating dockets. Bloomberg Law is often the best docket resource for UC Law SF students. 

Court Websites:

• Most courts have websites where you can obtain the dockets.
• However, most of these court websites send you to PACER, which is described below.

Bloomberg Law:  Provides excellent access to court dockets.

• Go to the Bloomberg Dockets Search page.
• Browse > All Legal Content > U.S. Courts > Court Dockets
• Coverage includes federal courts and selected state and international courts. Docket coverage includes the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.
• You can also use the Search Bar to enter the docket number or party name. 
• Or start your search by clicking on Dockets Search in the Popular Links.  This opens up a page that enables you to search for dockets by selecting a court from the source list or using many different fields, including Keywords, Docket Number, Party Options, Judge, Case Name, Attorney, Firm or Date Range.

Lexis:

• Once you find your case, select the docket link in the "About This Document" box to the right of the case opinion. Then search through the docket.
• Another way to find dockets in Lexis is to select Dockets from the Content Type.  Then search all dockets or limit your search to a particular court or practice area.

CourtLink:

• CourtLink is now available through Lexis+.  CourtLink provides access to a large collection of dockets and documents, and allows users to set Alerts and Track cases.
• Lexis+ CourtLink Quick Reference Guide (PDF)
• Searching in Lexis+ CourtLink (VIDEO)
• Lexis+ CourtLink Overview (VIDEO)

Westlaw:

• The easiest way to locate dockets in Westlaw is to select Dockets in Content Types.
• The dockets are divided up into different categories: all federal or state dockets, federal dockets by court, dockets by state, dockets by territory, and dockets by topic. You can search within each category to find a specific docket. Not all of the cases will have dockets and the coverage will depend on the jurisdiction. Most coverage begins after 2000. 

PACER:

• PACER is the government's Public Access to Court Electronic Records website. It is an electronic public access service that allows registered users to obtain case and docket information from federal appellate, district and bankruptcy courts. 
• See our Policy Regarding the use of PACER within this guide. Researchers are strongly encouraged to u PACER alternatives such as Bloomberg Law or RECAP.
• If you would like to practice using PACER before you graduate (or a professor who would like to have your students do so), please use the free: PACER Training Site
  • 

RECAP:

• The RECAP Archive is a searchable collection of millions of PACER documents and dockets collected and hosted for free by The Free Law Project.  This archive was created to help with some of the public access problems in using PACER.         
• Using this archive, you can finally search and download millions of PACER documents, including originally scanned PDFs that have been converted to text at the RECAP Archive.

Google:

• Sometimes a general Google search will work to locate dockets in more popular cases. Type in the case name and docket number.