DocketBird is a large repository of federal court cases and documents. They profess to have millions of cases and documents in their database, including nearly every pending case.

Usually, DocketBird charges a fee to access its services. However, DocketBird has decided to make its services free for law school libraries, university libraries, and public libraries.

DocketBird is fairly easy to use. The basic free activities that patrons will want to perform on DocketBird include (i) finding specific federal cases; (ii) searching DocketBird’s entire repository for particular terms; and (iii) viewing docket sheets and documents that DocketBird already has in its repository.

Patrons with Individual Patron Accounts can perform various payment-required activities in addition to those listed above. For example, those individuals can refresh docket sheets, download documents from the Court that may not already exist on DocketBird, “follow” cases of interest, and set up alerts for newly filed cases matching certain criteria. Each of these activities will incur the typical PACER fees of 10 cents per page.

Contact the Electronic Services Librarian for access credentials to this free service.