CALI's Free Law Reporter
The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI)'s The Free Law Reporter (FLR) is an electronic case reporter that freely publishes nearly every recent appellate and supreme court opinion, from state to federal U.S. courts.
This project builds upon Carl Malamud's Report of Current Opinions (RECOP) and, hence, contains whatever is included in the slip opinion archives of the RECOP. This includes primarily appellate level courts in the 50 states and D.C., the federal courts and SCOTUS. For the most part, coverage begins with 1/1/2011 and continues forward.
- The Free Law ReporterSearch opinions and ebooks.
Federal Court Dockets
Below are lower cost alternatives to LexisNexis' CourtLink and Westlaw's CourtExpress.
- PACERPublic Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) is an electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information from federal appellate, district and bankruptcy courts, and the PACER Case Locator via the Internet. Registration required. $.08 per page.
- Justia Dockets & FilingsThe Justia Federal District Court Filings & Dockets site republishes public litigation records retrieved from the US Federal District Courts. Search by party name, judge, jurisdiction, type of lawsuit, and date.
- CourtTraxLaunched in 2004, CourtTrax provides online court information search and retrieval services for Washington state, the federal court system, and superior, district, municipal and appellate/supreme courts that offer online access in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
- Bloomberg Law DocketsCoverage of all federal courts. Charges a flat rate per year per user for the entire service, including dockets. Additional costs are PACER costs and docket runner service charges.
- Legal Dockets OnlineA portal service that organizes web links for public records, court case dockets and filings.
- FreeCourtDockets.comA service provided by CourtPort. Offers free access to federal court dockets of all types.
Quick Links
Use Google Scholar to find full-text legal opinions from the U.S. federal and state district, appellate and supreme courts. For more information, see Finding the laws that govern us (Google blog).
- U.S. Courts' Court LocatorIncludes hyperlinked color Circuit Map. May also search by type of court, zip code, city & state, circuit, or area code.
- U.S. Courts (by Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts)The purpose of this site is to function as a clearinghouse for information from and about the Judicial Branch of the U.S. Government. Access federal court statistics, publications and reports, and forms under the "Library" tab.
- Federal Judicial CenterThe FJC is the education and research agency for the federal courts. This site contains the results of the Center's research on federal court operations, procedures, and court history.
- The Robing Room This site's mission is to provide a forum for evaluating federal district court judges and magistrate judges. It is owned by North Law Publishers, Inc., a New York Corp., whose principal shareholders are attorneys.
- Chart: The U.S. Court System
- U.S. Law WeekPart of BNA's Law School Program Core package. Law school only.
U.S. Supreme Court
- Supreme Court of the United StatesThis is the Court's official Web site. The docket page provides information regarding the status of cases for both the current term and the prior term. Users can search by using a Supreme Court docket number, a lower court docket number, or a case name. There are also links to court rules, opinions, and orders. The opinions are posted on this site within hours after the bench opinions are issued and remain posted until the opinions are published in a bound volume of the U.S. Reports.
- HeinOnline's U.S. Supreme Court Library (UCLA)Includes the Constitution, Rules of the Supreme Court of the United States and the U.S. Reports (1754-2005). Also available are several books (publication dates between 1804 and 1939) on the Court and two periodicals (Supreme Court Economic Review and Supreme Court Review).
- The Public Library of LawPowered by FastCase. Free account registration required. U.S. Supreme Court cases from 1754 to present. May search by case name or citation (no fields provided, just enter the citation/case name into the search box). May limit by date.
- lexisONE's Free Case LawAccess U.S. Supreme Court cases from 1781 to present. LexisNexis headnotes are not included. May search by keywords, by citation. Limit by date, parties, judges, and counsel.
- FindLaw's U.S. Supreme Court OpinionsA searchable database of Supreme Court opinions since 1893. Browsable by year and U.S. Reports volume number and searchable by citation, case name and full text.
- Legal Information Institute's Supreme Court CollectionContains current U.S. Supreme Court decisions since 1990 and a selection of over 600 historic decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. Finding aids include case name lists, topical lists, and authorship lists.
- United States Reports (OpenJurist)United States Supreme Court Opinions, 1790-
- OyezCases from 1792 to present. Oyez provides a summary of the facts of the case, question(s) presented, and the Court's conclusion. Links to the full text opinion provided by Justia. In addition, the Oyez Project is a multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States. It aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955. The site also reports voting details in every case back to 1953. Us
- On the DocketOn the Docket, part of the Oyez Project, is an online clearinghouse for news about decisions handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court and those cases that the justices accept for review. View summaries of upcoming cases and recently decided cases. There is also a Term Calendar and Timeline (which you can move forward or backward to see more content).
- ABA's Preview of the United States Supreme Court CasesProvides links to the merit briefs filed for current cases (both scheduled and unscheduled). Also links to the Supreme Court's Argument Transcript.
- LexisNexis Academic Universe's U.S. Supreme Court BriefsIncludes merit briefs for cases granted certiorari and special masters, amicus curiae briefs and joint appendices beginning in January 1979, wih selected coverage from 1936. All briefs are available for cases granted certiorari beginning after the 1993-1994 term.
- SCOTUS BlogThe Supreme Court of the United States blog is published by the law firm Akin Gump. Read news, commentary and analysis as well as keep up to date on new filings, orders and opinions. There is also page on the Court's schedule for the current week.
History & Statistics
- U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978 (UCLA)This is a fully searchable database of approximately 11 million pages and more than 350,000 separate documents. Approximately 150,000 Supreme Court cases are featured. May search full-text, by case name, court term year and document filing date, U.S. Reports citation. Also may browse authors and cases.
- Federal Judicial Center's History of the Federal JudiciaryMost notable on this page is the link to "Judges of the United States Courts," which takes you to the "Biographical Directory of Federal Judges" and the "Federal Judges Biographical Database." The Biographical Directory of Federal Judges provides information about all judges who have served since 1789 on the U.S. District Courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court, and the former U.S. Circuit Courts. The Federal Judges Biographical Databases allows users to create customized lists of j
- U.S. Courts' Statistical ReportsReports include the Annual Report of the Director: Judicial Business of the United States, Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act Statistics, Bankruptcy Statistics, PACER Bankruptcy Statistics, Federal Court Management Statistics, Federal Judicial Caseload Statistics, Judicial Facts and Figures, Statistical Tables for the Federal Judiciary, and Wiretap Reports.
- U.S. Courts' Authorized JudgeshipsIncludes historical information on authorized judgeships for all courts. See also "Judicial Vacancies" and "Judgeship Appointments by President" (links are on left).
- Creating the Federal Judicial System, 2nd ed.Russell R. Wheeler and Cynthia Harrison. (Washington, DC: Federal Judicial Center, 1994). 34-page PDF.
- The Supreme Court Historical SocietyThe Supreme Court Historical Society, a private non-profit organization, is dedicated to the collection and preservation of the history of the U.S. Supreme Court. On this site, one will find links to the history of the Court, how the Court works, some digitzied Society publications, and link to a 40-page PDF document called "Researching the Supreme Court of the United States: Available resources for commonly-asked questions resources" (under How the Court Works).
- CQ Press Supreme Court Collection (UCLA)Provides historical analysis of Supreme Ct. decisions, bios of justices, institutional history & the U.S. Constitution. Offers quantitative analysis of the Justices’ voting patterns. Provides full text & analysis of constitutions from over 100 countries.
FDsys's United States Courts Opinions - BETA
A pilot project between the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to provide public access to opinions from selected U.S. appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts.
Initial testing is with four courts:
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit;
- U.S. District Court, District of Rhode Island;
- U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Florida; and
- U.S. Bankrutpcy Court, Southern District of New York.
Other Federal Court Opinions
Please note that U.S. District Court cases are not as readily available for free on the Internet (except for those opinions posted on the courts' official Web sites, which are typically only the most recent decisions, and through Justia). Options include the low-cost subscription service Loislaw and the UCLA subscription database LexisNexis Academic Universe (see descriptions below).
Also consider calling your local college campus or public law library, which may have subscriptions to Academic Universe or public-access Westlaw, respectivley.
UCLAW students are eligible for free Loislaw accounts, which remain active throughout the summers and 6 months after graduation. Please see the instructions, which are posted on the Intranet, by clicking here.
- Public Library of LawIncludes cases from the Federal Courts of Appeals from 1950 to present (except for the 11th Circuit (from 1981) and the Federal Circuit (from 1982). In advanced search, may search only one jurisdiction at a time.
- LexisONE's Free Case LawMay access federal court of appeal cases decided within the last 10 years. Searchable by keywords or by citation. Limit by date, parties, judges, or counsel. Must create an account to view cases.
- FindLaw's CasesScroll down the page to access links to U.S. Courts of Appeals, Opinions & Resources. Coverage varies by jurisdiction but earliest opinions are dated between 1994 and 1997. Page for District Court opinions links to the official court Web sites.
- Justia Federal District Court Opinions & OrdersFrom 2004 to current. May search full-text or limit by jurisdiction, type of lawsuit, and party name.
- LoislawThis is a lower-cost alternative to Westlaw and Lexis. There are "flexible subscription plans for individual users." For example, one-day access to "Primary Law -- California" costs $39.99. Under Academic Plan, access to District Court opinions from 1921.
- LexisNexis Academic Universe (UCLA)This is a UCLA subscription database. The default page is the General Search. Please click on the "Legal" button at the top left-hand corner. The combined U.S. District court case law file contains all case law from 1789 to current.
- Federal Reporter, First Series (OpenJurist)United States Court of Appeals Opinions, 1880-1925
- Federal Reporter, Second Series (OpenJurist)United States Court of Appeals Opinions, 1925-1993
- Federal Reporter, Third Series (OpenJurist)United States Court of Appeals Opinions, 1993 to present.
- Google ScholarGo to the Advanced Scholar Search page and limit your search to Federal Courts.
Links to related guides
Federal Case Materials Checklist
How to Find a Case by Name or Topic Using Print Sources
♦
Understanding the Federal Courts
This 54-page publication (in PDF) provides an introduction to the federal judicial system, its organization and administration, and its relationship to the legislative and executive branches of the government. Published by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts in 2003.
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