Federal Courts

FREE RESOURCES

United States Court Opinions (govinfo.gov)
The United States Courts Opinions (USCOURTS) collection is a project between the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) and the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AOUSC) to provide public access to opinions from selected United States appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts. Coverage is from 2004 to present, with incomplete coverage from select jurisdictions beginning earlier. Opinions can be downloaded as PDF documents.

Federal Courts Web Archive
The Federal Courts Web Archive, on the website of the Library of Congress, provides retrospective archival coverage of federal judiciary websites. Websites included in the archives include the U.S. Supreme Court, federal appellate courts, trial courts, and other tribunals. Information available on the archives webpages includes slip opinions, transcripts, dockets, rules, calendars, judicial biographies, and statistics.

Justia U.S. Federal Courts Case Law
Justia provides access to case law from the Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals, U.S. District Courts, and special federal courts. Coverage varies by jurisdiction.

Google Scholar Federal Case Law Search
Google Scholar has Supreme Court cases from 1791-present and federal trial, appellate, tax, and bankruptcy cases since 1923.

PACER
PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) is an electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information from Federal Appellate, District, and Bankruptcy courts. Creating an account in PACER and viewing judicial opinions is free. Viewing other court documents costs $0.10/ a page, although users who incur less than $15 in charges per quarter are not billed.

SUBSCRIPTION RESOURCES

Westlaw (Westlaw password required)

• Federal Cases – case opinions from the U.S. Courts of Appeals, Federal District Courts, Federal Bankruptcy Courts, U.S. Tax Court, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, U.S. Court of International Trade, U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, and Military Courts. Dates of coverage vary by jurisdiction.

Lexis (Lexis password required)

• Federal Cases – case opinions from the U.S. Courts of Appeal, U.S. District Courts, and U.S. Bankruptcy Courts. Also includes case law from specialty courts: U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Claims Court, Court of Claims, Courts of Military Appeals and Military Review, Customs Court, U.S. Court of International Trade, U.S. Tax Court, Tax Court Memos, Tax Court Summaries, Board of Tax Appeals, Commerce Court, and U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals. Dates of coverage vary by jurisdiction.

Below is information on print resources for accessing federal case law. The Ross-Blakley Law Library does not have all of these print reporters in its collection.

Federal Cases (F. Cas.)
Pre- National Reporter System. Covers 1789–1879
Arranged alphabetically by case name

Federal Rules Decisions (F.R.D.)
District court cases that construe federal rules of civil procedure (1939– ) and federal rules of criminal procedure (1946– ). Also included are articles about the federal judiciary. Self-indexed at ten year intervals.

Federal Rules Service (Fed. R. Serv.)
Federal court cases that construe the federal rules of civil procedure and the federal rules of appellate procedure. (1939– )

Federal Supplement (F. Supp., F. Supp. 2d)
Coverage is 1932 to current. Publishing decision made by authoring judge. Some district court cases not reported here may be found in subject reporters, looseleaf services, or online. Full West editorial enhancements.

Federal Reporter (F., F.2d, F.3d)
Cases from the United States Courts of Appeals 1880 to current.
Cases are published according to court rules. Periodically a table of decisions without published opinions will appear. These “unpublished” opinions will frequently turn up in online services.

American Law Reports Federal (A.L.R. Fed)
A.L.R. Fed. 1969 to current; Pre-1969, federal cases included in A.L.R.– A.L.R.3rd.
Selected reports that include in depth annotations on the points of law presented.

Bankruptcy Reporter (B.R.) 1980– .

Federal Claims Reporter (Fed. Cl.) 1983– .

U.S. Tax Court Reports (T.C.) 1942– .