How to Use PACER to Find Federal Court Records

PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) is the federal judiciary's system for viewing dockets and documents from every U.S. district court, bankruptcy court, and court of appeals. If a case is federal (a federal crime, a lawsuit under federal law, a bankruptcy, an immigration or civil-rights case in federal court), it is in PACER and nowhere else. State and county portals do not include federal cases.

What PACER covers

• District courts: federal civil and criminal cases in all 94 districts.
• Bankruptcy courts: every bankruptcy case; see the bankruptcy guide.
• Courts of appeals: the 13 federal circuits.
• Not covered: the U.S. Supreme Court (which has its own free docket), state courts, and most administrative agencies.

Cases go back to the mid-1990s in electronic form. Older cases are indexed but their documents are on paper at the court or at a federal records center.

Registering

Registration takes a few minutes at the PACER website. Choose an individual (non-attorney) account. You will be asked for a credit card; you can decline it, but then your account is limited if you exceed the free quarterly allowance. Your account works across all federal courts.

Searching

PACER Case Locator is the national index. Search by party name (last name first for people), by case number, or by date filed, and filter to civil, criminal, bankruptcy, or appellate cases. Results show the court, case number, filing date, and the parties. Each search costs a small fee that counts toward your quarterly total.

Individual court CM/ECF systems hold the actual dockets. When you click a Case Locator result, you are taken into that court's system. Dockets list every filing in order with a document number; clicking a document number opens the PDF.

Tips:

• Search a business under its exact legal name and common variants.
• Use the case number format the court uses (for example, 4:24-cv-01234) if you have it.
• Criminal defendants are listed under the case "USA v. Lastname."

Fees explained

Dockets for large cases can run many pages, and each page view is billed, so view the docket once and note the document numbers you need. Transcripts are priced separately by the court reporter and are not covered by the $3.00 cap.

The quarterly fee waiver

If your total charges in a calendar quarter (January–March, April–June, and so on) are under $30, PACER waives them entirely. That is roughly 300 pages per quarter free. Most personal research stays under the limit. Check your usage under "Manage My Account" before a large download.

Courts can also grant a fee exemption to individual researchers, indigent parties, pro bono attorneys, and certain organizations. Requests go to the chief judge of the specific court, not to PACER centrally.

Sealed and restricted cases

A sealed federal case shows no information in PACER at all. Some criminal cases are sealed until an arrest is made. Documents in otherwise public cases can be filed under seal; the docket entry will say so. Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, minors' names, and birth dates are redacted from public filings by rule.

Free alternatives for some content

• Court opinions are free on PACER and are also collected by the Government Publishing Office and by nonprofit archives that mirror PACER documents other users have purchased.
• Supreme Court dockets and opinions are free on the Court's own website.
• Bankruptcy case status is available through many courts' free automated lookup.

Getting certified federal court documents

Certified copies of federal court documents are ordered from the clerk of the specific court, not through PACER. Fees are set nationally by the Judicial Conference; the court's website lists the current amounts and request procedure.