How do I find my court documents online?

Last reviewed: September 27, 2026 · Markdown version

Court records are kept by the court system that heard the case, so the first thing to pin down is which country, and which kind of court. There is no single search that covers every court. Below are three official portals we read today: the US federal courts, England and Wales, and India's district courts. For each one we say what it holds and where it stops. This is a map of where records live, not legal advice.

United States: federal cases on PACER

PACER is the federal judiciary's own service, and it describes itself as providing "electronic public access to federal court records". A registered user can search one court, or "Search a nationwide index of federal court cases" (Public Access to Court Electronic Records, read 27 September 2026). The two behave differently: searching a specific court "is updated immediately", while the nationwide PACER Case Locator "is updated daily". You need an account first — "Anyone can access PACER to view federal court records, but first you need to register for a PACER account" (Find a Case, read 27 September 2026).

It is not free by default. PACER's pricing page puts the fee at ten cents per page, says no single document is charged at more than three dollars, and notes a search is charged "even if the search displays “no matches found.”" Two things soften that: fees are waived for anyone who spends thirty dollars or less in a quarter, and "Court opinions are always free". Its own tip for keeping costs down: "Search by case number rather than by party name so you will go directly to the case without a charge" (PACER Pricing: How fees work, read 27 September 2026).

Where it stops: PACER covers the federal courts, and the pages we read say nothing about state courts, so a state case is not something to look for there. For anything beyond the docket and copies of filed documents, PACER's own answer is to "Contact the federal court where the case is filed" (the Find a Case page).

England and Wales: judgments on Find Case Law

The National Archives runs Find Case Law, which provides "free access to court judgments and tribunal decisions from England and Wales, plus UK-wide cases from the Supreme Court and Privy Council" (About this service — Find Case Law, read 27 September 2026). Its scope page is candid about the gaps. It does not include "most magistrates' court decisions", "judgments that are subject to reporting restrictions" or "routine orders" (What we provide — Find Case Law, read 27 September 2026). The about page adds that "many lower court hearings and some tribunal decisions are given verbally and never transcribed", so a missing result does not mean a case never happened.

Find Case Law publishes judgments, which are decisions, not the papers filed in a case. For the file of your own case, the route is the court itself: GOV.UK's court finder gives each court's "address", "contact details" and "opening times" for England and Wales, and points people in Scotland and Northern Ireland to their own courts services (Find a court or tribunal, read 27 September 2026).

India: eCourts case status

The eCourts services site, run under the Supreme Court's e-Committee, searches cases by their CNR number. Its instructions: "Enter the 16 digit alphanumeric CNR Number without any hyphen or space". If you do not have one, "click on the Case Status icon on the left menu to search the case with other options like case registration number, party name, advocate name etc." (eCourt India Services, read 27 September 2026). The same menu lists Court Orders and Cause List. That home page does not say whether the documents parties filed can be downloaded, so treat it as a place to find a case's status and orders, and ask the court's registry for anything more.

Once the PDFs are on your device

A case file builds up quickly: a docket, orders, and exhibits that are often scans of signed paper. Our suggestion is one folder per case, with the case number at the front of every file name, because the downloads tend to arrive with names that mean nothing a month later. And check the scanned exhibits before you rely on searching them — a scan with no text layer returns nothing to a search even when the word is on the page. How to tell whether a PDF has real text in it.