Federal Courts

• Westlaw
  • Opinions, selected docket documents
  • Accessible via “Federal Materials” menu
• Lexis Plus
  • Opinions, Briefs, Pleadings, Motions
  • Click the name of a court to get to the menu
• Bloomberg Law
  • Opinions, Briefs, Pleadings, Motion
  • $1500/user cap on document retrieval

The Supreme Court website has:

• Opinions from 1991 to the present
• Dockets, many of which include links to court documents
• Transcripts of oral arguments

The Office of the Solicitor General website has:

• Full text of its Supreme Court briefs from 1985 to the present 

Govinfo.gov has:

• Lower court opinions from 2004 to the present

PACER is the fee-based system for district and circuit court opinions and filings.

Ways to save money getting documents from the PACER system:

• Use the Recap website.  It is incomplete, but it is free.
• Download the Recap browser plug-in. This will enable you to use the Recap database for documents it has, and if you pay for a document, Recap will add it to the database and the next Recap user will not need to pay for it.
• Fee Waivers and Fee Exemptions:
  • Waiver: If a person accesses less than $30 worth of documents per quarter, fees are waived. If one uses Recap, one can make that $30 go farther. (information about fee waiver)
  • Exemption: Individual researchers may apply to the courts for a fee exemption. These researchers do not pay any fees, but the use of the documents is very restricted (information about fee exemption for researchers).  Other groups, such as indigent defendants, may also request fee exemptions (information about other fee exemptions).
• FEDERAL DEPOSITORY LIBRARIES ONLY:  The FDLP's PACER: Access and Education Program gives participating libraries a credit towards the library’s PACER bill in exchange for the library educating library users about PACER.