For more recent cases, the Supreme Court's website is an excellent place to start, as it provides information on cases pending on the docket, schedules of oral arguments, slip opinions from the Court, and other relevant information.    You may also wish to consult US Law Week, which publishes a record of the Supreme Court proceedings and other developments, and the SCOTUS blog, which tracks the activities of the Court in both editorial and statistical reports.

Electronic Sources:
LexisNexis: United States Supreme Court Transcripts (Oct. 1979 – date) 

Westlaw: Classic database SCT-ORALARG (Oct. 1990 – date)

Oyez -  RealAudio recordings and MP3 files for selected cases.

United States Supreme Court – oral argument transcripts for cases argued from the October Term 2000 to the present.

Print:
Landmark Briefs and Arguments of the Supreme Court of the United States.  Location: (L5) KF101.8 .K87.  Select transcripts or summaries of oral arguments published roughly two years following the decision. (1793 – date)

Microfiche and Film:
Oral Arguments, United States Supreme Court.  Location: UES.  Use the fiche guide for cabinet information.  (1952 – date)

Coverage in online databases generally exists from the late 1990's forward.  If you need cases prior to that time, the best option is to contact the Court's clerk's office and ask for assistance.  Use one of our Judicial Staff Directories for more information.

PACER:  This is the official case location system for the federal government, but searches are somewhat limited (not full text).  PACER requires you register for an individual login. For more information, please see the information under PACER on the Library Database Passwords (YLS NetID required) page of the YLS Inside site.

• The case locator allows you to search multiple courts at the same time. 
• If you have a specific court you'd like to search you can log into the individual court PACER site.
• If a document number is hyperlinked you can download it.
• Note: every Federal Court maintains their own PACER site which is why you have to search them individually. But your password will work across all sites.

Westlaw: Westlaw has integrated their Dockets product into both Westlaw Classic and WestlawNext. This includes full coverage of Federal Court dockets (same data from PACER) and state court coverage.

• In Classic, BRIEF-ALL, all available federal and state briefs or CTA-BRIEF, briefs from the federal appellate courts.  For specific Circuits, add the Circuit's number after CTA.  Example: CTA2-Brief for the 2nd Circuit or CTADC-Brief for D.C. Circuit.  You can check Westlaw Dockets coverage using this reference guide.
• Dockets on WestlawNext are easy to find and use.
• Some documents are available, some will tell you that Access is Denied. You can also check the "Filings" tab when you find a docket to see if any of the case documents are available.

LexisNexis:  In Classic Lexis you must navigate to "Legal > Court Records, Briefs and Filings " to locate court documents, although this does not exclusively include dockets.  Consult All Federal Briefs and Motions, Combined or All Federal and State Briefs and Motions, Combined

• Lexis also offers dockets from a separate product called CourtLink. This includes full coverage of Federal Court dockets (same data from PACER).
• Lexis Advance includes dockets searching. Select "Dockets" from the "All Content Types" menu on the home screen and integrates the data from CourtLink.

Other sources

• Federal Court of Appeals, District Court and Bankruptcy Court Websites
• Michael Whiteman, Free and Fee-Based Appellate Court Briefs Online
• Keyword search in MORRIS of "records and briefs" retrieves select reprints of briefs.
• 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Briefs for cases from 775 F.2d 1037 to 876 F.2d 676, Use the fiche guide for cabinet information.

State courts vary widely on trial court access and information. Some states call their trial courts district courts, supreme courts, superior courts, or even have multiple levels of trial courts. Some states have docket information available for free online (see below).

Westlaw: Westlaw has integrated their Dockets product into both Westlaw Classic and WestlawNext.  State coverage varies in both states and counties covered, and which case types are included (civil & criminal).  You can check Westlaw Dockets coverage using this reference guide.

• In Classic, 
  • STATE-BRIEF-ALL, briefs from the state appellate courts
  • XX-SCT-BRIEF and XX-APP-BRIEF, (xx) stands for the postal abbreviation for the state.  Individual state supreme and appellate court briefs.
• Dockets on WestlawNext are easy to find and use.
• Some documents are available, some will tell you that Access is Denied. You can also check the "Filings" tab when you find a docket to see if any of the case documents are available.

LexisNexis:  In Classic Lexis you must navigate to "Legal > Court Records, Briefs and Filings " to locate court documents, although this does not exclusively include dockets.  Includes: All State Briefs and Motions, Combined.

• Lexis also offers dockets from a separate product called CourtLink. This includes full coverage of Federal Court dockets (same data from PACER).
• Lexis Advance includes dockets searching. Select "Dockets" from the "All Content Types" menu on the home screen.  This integrates the data from CourtLink into one search platform.

• Simply select "Dockets" from the top menu when log in to search their dockets.  
• Links that are blue indicate a document is available to download. Green links mean a document is not available.

Transcripts

Transcripts are usually not available to the public.  If the case has been appealed by one of the litigants, they will sometimes request a transcript from the court reporter, which may then appear in the docket.  To determine whether a transcript is available, the best option is to contact the clerk's office and ask for assistance.  Use one of our Judicial Staff Directories for more information.

Connecticut Specific Information

Supreme Court of Connecticut:

• Print Briefs (1874 - 1986):   Location: UES Top Shelves, call number KFC3645.9 .C66
• Microfiche Briefs (1986 – date)  Use the fiche guide for cabinet information.
• Court Website: http://www.jud.state.ct.us/external/supapp/

Appellate Court of Connecticut:

• Microfiche Briefs (1975 – date).  Use the fiche guide for cabinet information.
• Electronic Sources: 2002 – date:   Classic Westlaw: CT-APP-BRIEF.  Select coverage.
• Court Website: http://www.jud.ct.gov/external/supapp/appellate.htm

Other State Courts:

Florida: Florida State University has a Supreme Cout Records & Briefs, with the goal of collecting briefs dating from 1846. The projected date for completion of the Project is 2012.  This site contains opinions issued in Florida Supreme Court cases decided since August 1984 and the briefs filed in those cases. Briefs for cases decided without an opinion are not included. To request briefs for older cases, click here.

Idaho: This search page allows you to look up a case and see if a library in Idaho has a copy of it.

Kentucky: Northern Kentucky University's online archive contains briefs submitted to the Kentucky Supreme Court in cases decided since January 1999 and Kentucky Court of Appeals in cases decided since October 2005.

Massachusetts: Since September 2007, briefs filed in most cases scheduled to be argued before the Supreme Judicial Court will be available on this website shortly before the sitting.  Webcasts of oral arguments are available in realtime and archived at the Suffolk University Law School.

Michigan: The Michigan Court's website contains briefs from the April 2002 through the present with synopses of case, click on the hyperlinked docket numbers to view briefs in Acrobat.

Minnesota: Beginning with 2005 (cases reported in 705 N.W. 2d) full text PDF copies of select civil case briefs.

Mississippi: Mississippi College School of Law has video archive coverage from 2004 - present and brief archive coverage from late 2007 - current (most).

Missouri: Briefs since 1998 are located with the docket sheet for the court, filed according to when the case was scheduled to be argued before the court.

Montana: Court documents filed after October 2007 will be available for viewing on this site, but in cases where documents were filed prior to October 2007, only the docket entry description will be available.The State Law Library scans and publishes on its website all Montana Supreme Court opinions and the briefs that are submitted by the parties for those cases. Currently, you can access cases dating back to the 1980s. In addition, the law library publishes online selected Supreme Court orders.  You can search all of these Supreme Court documents by entering keywords docket number, party names, topic, etc.) in the searchbox located here.

New York: Supreme Court of the State of New York Appellate Division: Second Judicial Department
Briefs are available for appeals calendared between January 2004 and approximately 6 months prior to the present date.

North Carolina: Contains Briefs from 1999 forward. From the main page, under the link for Library click on Browse.

North Dakota: Contains briefs from 1999 forward, search the docket here.

Ohio: Most documents that were filed in Supreme Court cases after December 1, 2006, are scanned.

Oregon Supreme Court and Appellate Court Briefs:  This collection contains unofficial copies of Oregon Supreme Court (SC) and Court of Appeals (COA) Briefs and Opinions. Briefs coverage begins approximately May 2007, continuing to the present.  (COA Briefs start with 212 Or. App 488; SC Briefs start with 342 O.R. 1) The long-term goal is to include Briefs back to the mid 1980’s. Opinions coverage is 1998 to present.

Texas:  Contains briefs dating back to 1999, although only a limited number of briefs are available from 1999 and 2000.

Virginia: The University of Richmond's Muse Law Library Case reporters and records and briefs sets are available for use in the Muse Law Library. The Library does not lend either case reporters or records and briefs sets. Limited photocopying (generally limited to 20 pages or less) may be requested for a fee. Requests may be submitted by e-mail.  In 2006, Virginia Supreme Court briefs became available through HeinOnline, but Yale Law does not subscribe to this collection.

Washington: Website contains an index of cases filed in the municipal, district, superior, and appellate courts of the state of Washington. This index can point you to the official or complete court record.

West Virginia: Supreme Court of Appeals briefs are available from January 2005 to the present.

Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin archives briefs online from November 1992 forward.

Wyoming: Coverage begins in 2008, look up the case by docket number in the case management system.

What is a docket?

A docket is simply a record of the proceedings of a court case. Dockets vary widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction in type of information recorded, the detail of the information, and availability to the public. Some jurisdictions have free online docket systems while others require subscription to a database or even visiting the court in-person.

Dockets Generally

Docket research is generally used to find information about a particular case. Dockets contain information about the judge hearing the case, parties involved, attorneys involved, the events of a case, and more.

Dockets are generally more useful for researching trials. Because trials may last many years, and involve many events the dockets are important for locating information about cases.

Examples of documents that can be identified and (sometimes) located by retrieving a trial court docket include: motions, testimony transcripts, jury instructions and worksheets, judge rulings, expert witness names, and more. 

Appellate court dockets are usually not highly sought after by researchers. Appellate court opinions make up the body of case law and are readily available in case law databases. Briefs, oral arguments, or other appellate documents are also available in specialized databases. Please see our research guide on locating briefs and oral arguments for more information.

However, appellate court dockets can still be important. Appellate dockets may include important dates, information about briefs filed in a case, case numbers, parties, and attorneys involved.

How do I read a docket?

While docket formats vary, some basic information should be included on all dockets. 

Usually a docket will include a case name or party names, and case or docket number. This is illustrated in the image below of a U.S. Supreme Court docket. (click on the image to open a larger image).

Docket details will often list the date of an event, argument, or document submission, as well as some information about the event. This is illustrated in the image below of a U.S. Supreme Court docket. (click on the image to open a larger image).

Finally, dockets often include detailed information about parties and their attorneys. This can be an important tool for finding out which lawyers or law firms are representing clients in cases.

The image below displays a U.S. Supreme Court docket with attorney information.  (click on the image to open a larger image).

Federal Appellate Courts

• U.S. Supreme Court dockets since 2000 are available on their website: http://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docket.aspx and in Specialized Databases.
• Federal Courts of Appeals dockets are available in Specialized Databases. Occasionally dockets or individual documents will be posted on the court website, but this is usually only in cases that are important or of special interest.

Federal Trial Courts

Federal District courts are the trial courts for the federal government. Published Federal District Court opinions are reported in the Federal Supplement case reporter. Because a trial involves a lot of motion practice (many motions are filed) a judge may issue many rulings. A single trial case may see multiple published opinions. However, the only way to find all the motions, rulings, and more is to view the docket.

How do I find Federal District Court Dockets?

• Individual court websites may post dockets or documents of particular interest to the public. Otherwise dockets and documents must be located in Specialized Databases.

Federal District court cases have a standard numbering scheme which helps somewhat with locating individual cases. The first digits in a case number identify the year the case was filed. This is followed by case-type code. 'CV' identifies a civil case, 'CR' identifies a criminal case, and so forth, this is followed by the case number. An example of this is seen below.

Note: every Federal district court uses this scheme. So while one court will not re-use a case number, one case number may identify multiple cases (each in a different court). Some district courts add judges initials or other identifying information to this standard number.

State Courts

State courts vary widely on trial court access and information. Some states call their trial courts district courts, supreme courts, superior courts, or even have multiple levels of trial courts. 

Some states have docket information available for free online. For example, New York State and Washington State have free online databases. Other states have their own proprietary systems and/or require you to locate dockets in Specialized Databases.

How do I find State Court Dockets?

1. Check to see if your state has a free online database. Search Google for phrases like '[state name] case search' and so forth.
2. Check the Specialized Databases for state court coverage. Just make sure you check that the database includes your state. Some states withhold data from these databases. Some states only have limited coverage with some counties included and others not.
3. If you know the specific court in which your case was heard, call the Court Clerk or Records Clerk for that court. If your case appeared in the news see if you can use a news item to narrow down the exact court.
4. Contact the state law library. They can often tell you the best way to get state court dockets in their state and may even be able to help locate items for you.
5. Contact a reference librarian for help on how to locate state court dockets.

How do I find a document listed on a docket?

Since electronic filing has become the norm in Federal District Courts many documents are available online in PDF format. Of the Specialized Databases (check individual databases listed below for tips on finding documents), PACER has the most reliable access to e-filed documents. Though Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg have some access to the electronic documents. They have also made good use of their manually collected documents and started making these collections available.

State courts are more difficult to locate. Sometimes your best option is to contact a court directly with the case number and information from the document. You can also contact a librarian for help getting a document.

Specialized Databases

PACER -stands for Public Access to Court Electronic Records. This is the official case location system for the federal government. Most of the material that is available on PACER is available in the docket databases on Bloomberg Law and Westlaw. PACER has a few more of the underlying documents and is the only source for certain stypes of cases, Bloomberg Law and Westlawhave all of the docket information available in PACER (except for a few classes of cases) and most of the underlying documents. In addition, Bloomberg Law includes access to many state dockets and some UK dockets.

Bloomberg Law and Westlaw should be your first docket research stop. PACER charges $0.10 per page VIEWED. The law libary MAY reimburse you for PACER charges that you incur, however, to be eligible for reimursement, you must meet with John Nann (john.nann@yale.edu) or Julie Krishnaswami (julie.krishnaswami@yale.edu) before you incur the charges. You must register for your own PACER account here: https://www.pacer.gov/psco/cgi-bin/regform.pl

PACER requires you register for an individual login but students can contact a librarian to help defer costs of using the system. Passwords take about a week to receive. Contact a librarian if you can't wait to receive a password.

• The case locator allows you to search multiple courts at the same time. 
• If you have a specific court you'd like to search you can log into the individual court PACER site.
• If a document number is hyperlinked you can download that document for a charge of $.10 per page.
• Note: every Federal Court maintains their own PACER site which is why you have to search them individually. But your password will work across all sites.

Westlaw - Westlaw has integrated their Dockets product into both Westlaw Classic and WestlawNext. This includes full coverage of Federal Court dockets (same data from PACER) and state court coverage. State coverage varies in both states and counties covered, and which case types are included (civil & criminal).  

• Dockets on WestlawNext are easy to find and use.
• In Westlaw Classic, search for a database using the jurisdiction and the term "Dockets" to find the relevant database.
• You can check Westlaw Dockets coverage using this reference guide.
• Some documents are available, some will tell you that Access is Denied. You can also check the "Filings" tab when you find a docket to see if any of the case documents are available.

Lexis - Lexis dockets come from a separate product called CourtLink. But Lexis has been integrating dockets into their regular products. This includes full coverage of Federal Court dockets (same data from PACER) and state court coverage. State coverage varies in both states and counties covered, and which case types are included (civil & criminal).  

• Lexis Advance includes dockets searching. Select "Dockets" from the "All Content Types" menu on the home screen.
• Note: Some docket information in Lexis Advance appears to be incomplete.
• In Classic Lexis you must navigate to "Legal > Court Records, Briefs and Filings " to locate court documents, although this does not exclusively include dockets.
• If you navigate to "Legal > Court Records, Briefs and Filings > Court Records

How to search PACER
PACER is the official case location system for the federal government, but searches are somewhat limited (not full text).  This tutorial will show you how to find the records of a particular court, including how to find cases by name, date, and docket number.  Included is a demo of the PACER case locator, which allows you to search multiple courts at the same time, and a demonstration of how to retrieve statistical reports on the activities of a particular court.

• Most of the material that is available on PACER is available in the docket databases on Bloomberg Law and Westlaw. Those databases should be your first docket research stop.

• PACER charges $0.10 per page VIEWED. The law libary MAY reimburse you for PACER charges that you incur, however, to be eligible for reimursement, you must meet with John Nann or Julie Krishnaswami before you incur the charges.

• You must register for your own PACER account here: https://www.pacer.gov/psco/cgi-bin/regform.pl

How to Get Briefs in Westlaw Next
Learn how to easily find briefs related to a docket, case, or topic.

How to Get Briefs in Lexis Advance
Learn how to easily find briefs related to a specific case and how to find briefs on a particular topic.

How to Get Dockets and Court Filings with Classic Lexis CourtLink
LexisNexis CourtLink starts with provides access to the calendar proceedings (docket) of a lawsuit, and the documents that are filed during the course of that suit.

PACER tutorials from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
Lasting only a few minutes each, the tutorials are a quick and fun way to learn something new about PACER or to brush up on your existing PACER skills.