To access electronic court records, you use PACER for anything filed in a federal court and the individual state or county court’s online portal for everything else. There is no single national database that covers both. Once you know which court heard the case, the lookup itself is usually a matter of registering for an account, searching by case number or party name, and paying a small per-page fee for the documents you open. Many searches cost nothing at all.
Federal Cases: PACER
Public Access to Court Electronic Records, known as PACER, is the system for federal district courts, bankruptcy courts, and appellate courts. It holds over a billion documents and reaches every federal court in the country.1PACER: Federal Court Records. PACER Pricing: How Fees Work
You need an account before you can search. Go to the PACER registration page and choose the “Case Search Only” option if you just want to look up and read records rather than file documents. Registration asks for your name, date of birth, and a tax ID so the system can bill you if your usage crosses the free threshold.2PACER: Federal Court Records. Register for an Account
Once logged in, you can search across all federal courts at once or go directly into a specific court’s docket. The system accepts party names, case numbers, filing dates, and, for bankruptcy matters, Social Security numbers to narrow results when a debtor shares a common name.3PACER: Federal Court Records. What Information Is Needed to Search Court Records Using PACER?
State and County Cases
State courts run independently. Each state has built its own electronic records system, and in many states the counties maintain their own portals on top of that. Names, layouts, and search tools differ from one jurisdiction to the next, and nothing like PACER unifies them.
Start at the website of the specific court where the case was filed. Look for a section labeled “public records,” “case search,” or “electronic court records.” Most state systems let you search by party name, case number, or case type. Some provide docket sheets for free but charge for the underlying scanned documents; others give everything away. A few charge for both.
What to Have Ready Before You Search
The cleanest way to pull a record is by case number, the alphanumeric docket number assigned when the case was filed. With that number in hand, the system returns the exact file and nothing else.
Without it, you can usually search by party name. This works for unusual names and gets harder with common ones. Knowing the approximate filing date, the court location, and whether the case was civil or criminal narrows the results considerably and keeps you from paying for pages of hits you don’t want.
What It Costs
PACER
PACER charges $0.10 per page for documents, search results, and reports. Individual documents cap at $3 each, so even a lengthy motion costs no more than that. Search results and transcripts have no cap, which is where costs climb if you run broad queries. You are charged for searches even when they return no matches.1PACER: Federal Court Records. PACER Pricing: How Fees Work
There is a quarterly cushion. If your total charges stay at $30 or less in a calendar quarter, those fees are waived.4PACER: Federal Court Records. Pricing Frequently Asked Questions For a casual user pulling a handful of documents, that often means the account costs nothing to maintain.
If you cannot afford the fees at all, you can request an exemption from the court that holds the records. Procedures vary court by court, and the standard is whether the waiver is necessary to avoid an unreasonable burden and promote public access.5PACER: Federal Court Records. Options to Access Records if You Cannot Afford PACER Fees
State Courts
State and local courts set their own fees. Online searches are often free, but downloading scanned documents may run $0.50 to $1.00 per page. A certified copy, which carries the court’s official seal and is accepted in other legal proceedings, costs more on top: certification fees commonly fall somewhere between $5 and $40 per document depending on the jurisdiction. Mailed copies add postage. Check the clerk’s website before you order.
Free Ways Around PACER Fees
Two routes let you avoid PACER charges. Most federal courthouses keep public access terminals in the clerk’s office where anyone can view electronic records at no cost. Printing from those terminals still carries a per-page fee, and you have to show up in person.
The other option is the RECAP Archive, a free, crowdsourced database of federal court documents maintained by Free Law Project. It works through a browser extension for Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Firefox. Once installed, any PACER document you buy is automatically uploaded to the archive, and when you later open a case on PACER, the extension flags any document someone else has already contributed so you can read it for free.6RECAP Suite. RECAP Suite – Turning PACER Around Since 2009 Coverage depends on what other users have already pulled, so it is strongest in high-profile cases.
Records You Will Not Find Online
Some court materials are closed to public viewing no matter where you look. Federal courts withhold unexecuted warrants, pretrial bail reports, presentence reports, juvenile records, juror information, and certain expenditure records that could expose a court-appointed lawyer’s defense strategy.7United States Courts. Accessing Court Documents – Journalists Guide Discovery material such as depositions is usually exchanged between the attorneys and never filed with the court, so it does not appear in any electronic system. Settlement terms are typically confidential even when the fact of a settlement shows up on the docket.
Sealed records require a court order to unseal. Family law files, particularly those involving domestic violence or child custody, are restricted in many jurisdictions and may require a motion showing a legitimate interest before a judge will grant access. If a case you expect to see is not in the system, it may be sealed rather than missing.
Age also matters. Electronic filing became standard in federal courts around 1999. Dockets and documents from cases opened before then are generally paper, and may not appear online at all.7United States Courts. Accessing Court Documents – Journalists Guide For files less than roughly 15 years old that have not yet been transferred out of the court, contact the clerk’s office directly. Older closed files eventually move to the National Archives, which is where to start looking for anything from decades back.8National Archives. National Archives Court Records
Reading the Docket and Saving Documents
When you open a case in PACER or a state portal, the first thing you see is usually the docket sheet. It lists every filing in chronological order with a date, a short description, and a link to the document itself, typically a PDF.
The docket sheet is your map. In a large case with hundreds of entries, scan the descriptions and open only the filings you actually need, because each click in PACER adds to your bill. Most viewers include a keyword search inside the docket; some state systems let you filter by filing type to jump straight to orders, motions, or judgments.
Download or print the document while you are in the session. Some systems issue temporary links that expire, and PACER will charge you a second time if you need to re-open a document you already paid to view. Saving a local copy on the first visit is the simplest way to avoid paying twice for the same record.