To search court cases by name, start with the court system that likely handled the case: use PACER’s national index for federal matters, and the state or county court’s online portal for local matters. Free opinion databases like Google Scholar, Justia, and CourtListener fill in the gaps when you want a published decision without paying for docket access. A party’s name alone will usually pull more results than you can sort through, so gather any additional detail you can before you start typing.
What You Need Before You Start
A name by itself is a weak search term. Courts in larger jurisdictions handle thousands of cases a year, and a common surname will return an overwhelming list. Before you search, try to pin down at least one of the following: the approximate filing year, the city or county where the case was filed, whether it was civil or criminal, and whether it was in state or federal court. Even a rough date range cuts the results dramatically.
If you already have a docket number, use it. That is the fastest way into any court’s system and skips the name-matching problem entirely.
Federal Cases: Searching PACER by Name
The official system for federal court records is the Public Access to Court Electronic Records service, known as PACER. It covers the federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts, and anyone can open a free account to search dockets, filings, and documents by party name, case number, or date range within a specific court.1United States Courts. Find a Case – PACER
When you don’t know which federal court handled a case, use PACER’s national index, which searches across all federal courts at once. Enter the party’s name and the system returns a list of court locations and case numbers where that name appears in federal litigation.2Public Access to Court Electronic Records. Public Access to Court Electronic Records From there you can drill into the specific court to view the docket.
PACER charges $0.10 per page to view documents, capped at $3.00 per individual document. That cap applies to case-specific reports like docket sheets and claims registers, but not to name search results or transcripts of court proceedings.3Public Access to Court Electronic Records. Pricing Frequently Asked Questions If your total charges stay at $30 or less in a quarter, the fees are waived. Court opinions are free to any account holder, so if you only want the judge’s decision, you will not pay anything.1United States Courts. Find a Case – PACER
Free Alternatives to PACER
For many federal cases, you can avoid PACER fees altogether by searching one of the free archives.
CourtListener and RECAP
CourtListener, run by the nonprofit Free Law Project, hosts a searchable archive of millions of federal court documents originally pulled from PACER. The collection grows through users who install the free RECAP browser extension, which automatically uploads PACER documents to the public archive as those users download them.4CourtListener. Advanced RECAP Archive Search for PACER Coverage is uneven because it depends on what other users have already retrieved, but high-profile cases and frequently accessed dockets are often available in full without paying.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar has a dedicated case law search. Select the “Case law” option instead of the default “Articles” setting, type in a party name, and run the search. You can narrow results by jurisdiction by clicking “Select courts” and checking specific federal or state courts.5Library of Congress. Google Scholar – How To Find Free Case Law Online Google Scholar is strongest for appellate opinions and generally does not include trial court filings or docket entries, so it will help you find a written decision but not the underlying record.
Justia
Justia provides free access to opinions from the U.S. Supreme Court, all federal circuit courts of appeals, federal district courts, and most state supreme and intermediate appellate courts.6Library of Congress. Justia – How To Find Free Case Law Online You can search by case name or topic. Like Google Scholar, it focuses on published opinions rather than the full trial court record.
State, County, and Municipal Cases
Trial court records from state, county, and municipal courts sit outside PACER and outside the federal opinion databases. These records consist of dockets, motions, orders, and evidence lists tied to a specific courthouse, and they are not published in legal reporters. To find them, you generally need to search the court’s own website or a statewide electronic docket system.
Access varies widely. Some statewide portals let you look up basic case information by party name or case number at no cost. Others charge per-search fees that generally range from a few dollars to around $25 for a statewide name search. Detailed documents like motions, transcripts, or exhibits often require a paid account with the court’s case management system or an in-person visit to the clerk’s office. Certified copies typically cost a few dollars per page.
Because access rules and search interfaces differ from state to state and often from county to county, the practical starting point is to search for the specific court’s name plus “case search” or “public access.” That will usually take you to the right portal.
Search Techniques That Narrow a Name Search
A few habits borrowed from legal research will save you time on any of these platforms.
Put names in quotation marks. Searching “Smith v. Jones” forces the system to find that exact string rather than every document mentioning someone named Smith and someone named Jones separately. This works on PACER, Google Scholar, Justia, and most state court portals.
Use Boolean operators when a name alone is too broad. AND requires both terms to appear. OR broadens the search. NOT excludes a term. Parentheses group terms so the search engine reads them in the right order. If you’re looking for a person named Rodriguez involved in a contract case, searching “Rodriguez” AND contract will filter out unrelated matters. If you know the person went by two names, (“Maria Rodriguez” OR “Maria Gomez”) catches both.
Paid databases like Westlaw and Lexis add proximity connectors: /s for same sentence, /p for same paragraph, and /5 for within five words. Free tools like Google Scholar do not support these, so on free platforms your best options are exact-phrase and Boolean.
When a name still returns too much, add a location or date range. Most court portals let you filter by filing year or by division within the court.
When a Case Doesn’t Show Up
Court records are presumptively public, but not everything you might expect to see will be visible.
Federal filings must be redacted for certain sensitive information before they go on the docket. Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, filings may include only the last four digits of a Social Security number or financial account number, only the year of a person’s birth, and only the initials of any minor child.7Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 5.2 – Privacy Protection for Filings Made With the Court The party making the filing is responsible for redacting, not the clerk.
Some cases are sealed entirely. A sealed case will typically still appear in a court index by name and docket number, but the underlying documents will be inaccessible. Courts can seal records only when the interest in secrecy outweighs the public’s right of access, and judges usually require a showing of specific, concrete harm from disclosure with no less restrictive alternative. Matters involving minors, trade secrets, and certain national security issues are the most common candidates.
Finally, older cases predating electronic filing may exist only on paper at the courthouse. If a name search returns nothing for a case you know exists, and the case is more than a couple of decades old, call the clerk’s office in the court where it was filed and ask how to request the paper file.