Briefs, Dockets, Oral Arguments and Other Court Documents Research Guide

This guide collects sources for dockets and court documents, including briefs and oral arguments, from federal and state courts.

Contents

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Finding Dockets on Bloomberg Law

Register for an account. Bloomberg Law is available to Law Center students and faculty. If you have not yet registered, you may activate an academic account. You do not need to enter an activation code, but you must register with your Georgetown e-mail address. You will receive your credentials at most within 72 hours, but often much sooner.

Access dockets. You can access federal and state court dockets and documents on Bloomberg Law. Once you sign in, select Litigation at the top. 

  • Check Docket Coverage. From “Litigation,” select “Docket Coverage.” This displays a chart that shows which federal and state court dockets and documents are available electronically, as well as the dates of coverage. 
     
  • Search Dockets. From “Litigation,” select “Dockets Search.” The Dockets Search form allows you to search by keywords, courts, parties, judge, docket number, case name, nature of suit, cause of action, and more.

When searching by keywords, you may choose to search “Dockets Only” or “Dockets & Documents.” Note that the latter option only searches the full text of court filings that have already been loaded into Bloomberg Law from a court’s electronic document service.

  • Update Docket. Once you locate the docket for a case you’re researching, note the date that the docket was last updated and click “Update Docket” to make sure you are looking at the most recent changes. Any associated PACER fee up to an annual cap of $1,500 will be waived for you as an academic user. To check how much of the $1500 annual cap you have available to use, please go to My Dockets Billing under “My Account.” For information on docket sheet update fees, please see Bloomberg Law's Dockets Pricing.
     
  • Track Docket. To receive email notifications whenever there is an update to the docket, click “Track Docket.” Any associated PACER fee up to an annual cap of $1,500 will be waived for you as an academic user. To check how much of the $1500 annual cap you have available to use, please go to My Dockets Billing under “My Account.” For information on docket sheet tracking fees, please see Bloomberg Law's Dockets Pricing.
     
  • Retrieve Court Documents. For each docket, you will see a list of court documents that have been filed in that case. For federal dockets, you will be able to retrieve most of the filings that are available on PACER. Availability of state court documents varies by local e-filing rules. See “Check Docket Coverage” above for more information.

You will see either “View” or “Request” next to each document. Click “View” to immediately open a document that has already been loaded into Bloomberg Law. If a document has not yet been loaded, click “Request.”

If Bloomberg Law has electronic access to the document, any associated PACER fee up to an annual cap of $1,500 will be waived for you as an academic user. To check how much of the $1500 annual cap you have available to use, please go to My Dockets Billing under “My Account.” For information on document retrieval fees, please see Bloomberg Law's Dockets Pricing.

Click “Accept” to authorize the document request. Once available, the document will be emailed to you and added to your “Docket Requests” under “Litigation” from the top menu. If you have reached your annual cap of $1,500 in PACER fees, you may “View” documents already available on Bloomberg Law but may not “Request” documents until the annual cap is reset on July 1.

If a document is not available electronically (e.g., the document must be retrieved in person from the court using a courier service), you will be notified that the document falls outside our Bloomberg Law subscription.

Get more help. For more help searching dockets and documents on Bloomberg Law, or for assistance locating dockets and documents that are not available on Bloomberg Law, please contact a librarian.