Court Docket Materials

While their content is not exhaustive, Westlaw and Lexis+ do provide access to some federal docket materials. For Westlaw, you can click on "Content types," then "Dockets" to view the various search options, such as by specific court or federal agency. For Lexis+, click on "Legal Research," then "Content," then "Dockets (CourtLink)" to get to the search menu, which includes filters that are specific to federal courts.

Fastcase is another legal research database that provides access to federal docket materials. On the database's home page, click on "Jurisdictions" to the right of the search bar to select which jurisdictions you want materials from and which types of materials you want to search for. Clicking on the circle next to "Briefs, Pleadings, and Orders" will search all categories of docket materials available on Fastcase, or you can expand the menu to search for certain types of materials.

Through its RECAP Archive, Court Listener provides access to millions of docket materials that originally came from PACER. Its collection is not exhaustive because the site depends on people downloading documents from PACER while using the RECAP plugin, but it could have the document you're looking for. On the homepage, click on RECAP Archive at the top to access the database's search page. If you sign up for a free account, you can also set up docket alerts and add notes to cases so they're saved to your account.

The Supreme Court provides access to its docket materials for free on its website, but it is limited to documents filed since November 13, 2017. You can also view dockets starting with the court's 2001 term. On the Supreme Court's home page, click on "Case Documents," then "Docket Search" to reach the search box. This website's docket materials can also be accessed through Justia on its Supreme Court Center webpage and from SCOTUSblog by clicking on "Cases" at the top of its homepage.

For older cases, the National Archives has a massive Supreme Court collection called Records of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1772–2007. This collection includes series that contain docket materials from appellate and original jurisdiction cases, the most significant of which are Appellate Jurisdiction Case Files, 1792–2017 and Original Jurisdiction Case Files, 1792–1998. Please note that not all materials in the collection are available online, so you may have to contact or visit the National Archives to obtain materials not available through its website.

For other federal court materials, PACER may be the only option for obtaining those documents online. While VLGS does not provide students with direct access to PACER, the Cornell Library staff do have access and evaluate document requests on a case-by-case basis to determine if they can be fulfilled. If you need a document from PACER, contact the library's reference staff, and one of the librarians will evaluate your request. Please include the court name and docket number in your request; you can use RECAP to locate that information if you do not already have it. In the alternative, if you want to sign up for your own account, PACER does waive its charges when the quarterly total is less than $30.

For federal court materials, other search options include visiting the court's website, performing a Google search to see if someone has made the document available online (journalist, etc.), or contacting the court directly. For additional research assistance, please contact the Cornell Library reference staff.

To find out when new materials have been filed with a court, you can sign up for alerts. One option is to use the various alert services offered by the legal research databases listed above.

Another option is to use the PACER website, which provides links to federal court RSS feeds that you can access using your Outlook account. First, find the court you are interested in on PACER's Court CM/ECF Lookup webpage. Click on the court's name and see if there is an RSS link on the court's webpage. If so, right click on the RSS link, then select "Copy link address." In Outlook, right click on "RSS Feeds," then select "Add a New RSS Feed." Hit Ctrl+V to paste the link address into the box and then select "Add." You should immediately receive the court's RSS feed in your RSS Feeds mailbox.

DocketBird also provides alerts when you track a specific case or search string. However, it does so by searching PACER, so you have to sign up for a DocketBird account and then link it to your PACER account. DocketBird does provide free accounts for academic institutions, so once you sign up for a free trial using your VLGS email address, you may get an email from DocketBird stating they have switched you to a free account. (The trial period will still run, but then you will have a free account once it is over. If you are not automatically switched to a free account, try contacting DocketBird.) The amount you have to pay for the PACER searches depends on whether other people are also tracking the same case. It can range from zero to the full price. Once you receive an alert, you can click on the case name and then view and download the document in DocketBird. DocketBird downloads the document from PACER for you to be able to view it, so you may want to see if the document is available from another source, such as RECAP, before viewing and downloading it. Please note that any searching and downloading charges will show up in your PACER account.