Q. Court Documents and PACER Access

For detailed information about finding court documents, see our Research Guide to Records, Briefs, and Court Filings. 

Note that not all court documents are available online. You may need to visit the court website or contact the court clerk. 

Database Access

HLS faculty, staff and students have access to many U.S. federal and state court filings via :

• Bloomberg Law 
  • Federal/PACER & selected state
• Lex Machina
  • Federal/PACER & selected state
• Docket Alarm
  • Federal/PACER & selected state
• Trellis
  • State
• Lexis Courtlink (available in Lexis)
  • Federal & selected state

Contact us for more information about access and setting up your accounts. 

Other sources for selected court documents:

• Nexis Uni
• CourtListener Recap
• Westlaw terminal (Harvard Law School Library, Room 353)

PACER Access

PACER provides access to U.S. Federal court dockets and filings. Anyone can register for a PACER account. Documents are available for $0.10/page, and fees under $30 per quarter are waived. Individual researchers may also request a fee exemption for scholarly research.

• PACER pricing

The Library can only provide limited access to PACER for onsite patrons in circumstances when the documents are not otherwise available.