Public Access to Court Electronic Records is the federal court system's system for fee-based online access to docket sheets and many of the underlying full-text documents. The basic cost is $0.10 per page. You will need your own account - see PACER registration page for further information - neither the Library nor the Law School maintains a password for use by Library patrons. 

Scope of coverage - Different courts implemented the PACER system at different times and not all pre-existing cases were added to the system. For a basic summary of the date range covered in each court, go to the PACER Case Locator and click on the “Court Information” tab at the top of the screen.

Finding identifying information - Use the PACER Case Locator to search nationwide to determine whether a party is or has been involved in litigation in the U.S. district, bankruptcy or appellate courts, or to search for a specific case for which you have some but not all identifying information (party names, docket number, jurisdiction, etc.).

• Use “Advanced Search” for the most search options - the question mark icons will give you information on the acceptable formats to use in a given field.
• You can do a general search by region (such as federal circuit or individual state).
• You can limit your search by type, including bankruptcy, civil, criminal, or Multi-District Litigation cases

Finding documents in a specific case - If you know the court (e.g., Northern District of California) and docket number or have found it using the PACER Case Locator, use that court's PACER site to get the docket sheet or to download any electronically available documents.

• If you have access to a subscription resource that includes PACER data, searching those services' versions of PACER information may save you time and money on the PACER system by enabling you to search on PACER using very specific information such as the filing date or docket item number of the particular document you want to download.
• To find your court's PACER site, use PACER's Court Links portal page. Note - the court's site may give you a choice of using the Electronic Case Filing (ECF) system to submit documents or using PACER to retrieve documents; ECF is generally for parties involved in the litigation, and its use  is not covered in this guide nor needed for downloading filings from PACER - simply choose the PACER option.

After entering your personal PACER login information, choose either "Reports" or "Query" in the menu bar at the top:

• Use Reports if you already have the case (docket) number (e.g., from searching the PACER Case Locator) and want to see the docket activity and/or obtain underlying documents - choose Docket Sheets and enter the case's docket number (e.g., C-07-04771).
• To save on costs, you can limit the report length by specifying the filing or entry dates, or the Document Number (docket item number), of a particular item or range of items you want to see, and you can uncheck the boxes for displaying the parties and attorneys in the case.
• The docket sheet you pull up will show docket item numbers, the entry or filing date, and a short description of the document. Documents available for downloading will have a clickable link as the docket item number.
• Use Query to research claims, types of cases, or parties involved in litigation filed in this particular court. The result will be a list of captions and docket numbers for any cases that satisfy the criteria you specify in your Query; to obtain docket sheets or documents from those actions, follow the above instructions for Reports.

Lasting only a few minutes each, these tutorials are a quick way to learn about PACER or to brush up on your existing PACER skills. Current topics include the PACER Case Locator, Digital Audio Recordings and PACER Usage History Reports. Click here to start...

Use this training site to learn how to use PACER or to hone your skills and explore new options. There is no charge for accessing this training area and you don’t have to register. The site includes data from real cases filed in the New York Western District Court between 1/1/2007 and 7/1/2007 so users can get a feel for the type of case data and documents available through PACER.

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