Court Docket Materials

While their content is not exhaustive, Westlaw and Lexis+ do provide access to some state docket materials. For Westlaw, you can click on "Content types," then "Dockets" to view the various search options, such as by specific state. (Please note that Colorado and North Carolina dockets must be searched for separately using links at the bottom of the Dockets page.) For Lexis+, click on "Legal Research," then "Content," then "Dockets (CourtLink)" to get to the search menu, which includes filters that are specific to state courts.

Fastcase is another legal research database that provides access to state 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.

For Vermont state courts, the general public can access case summaries online for the Civil Division and Judicial Bureau through the Vermont Judiciary Public Portal. Unofficial versions of court opinions, decisions, and orders are available online for all court divisions except the Judicial Bureau going as far back as the year 2000. Westlaw also has a Vermont Criminal Trial Court Documents database that dates back to 2004. For all other state docket materials, you can contact the individual court, use their courthouse public access terminals, perform a Google search to see if someone has made the document available online (journalist, etc.), or perform a search using the legal research databases discussed above.

For New Hampshire state courts, the general public can access limited case information for most circuit and superior court cases through the New Hampshire Judicial Branch Case Access Portal. Superior court orders and supreme court orders and opinions are available on the courts' websites. For other state docket materials, you can submit a request with the New Hampshire Judicial Branch Central Processing Center, contact the individual court, perform a Google search to see if someone has made the document available online (journalist, etc.), or perform a search using the legal research databases discussed above.

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

To find out when new docket materials have been filed with a state court, you may be able to sign up for alerts. If a legal research database has docket materials for the relevant court, use the database's alert service to receive updates.