A plain-English guide for first-time users. How to register, find a federal court case, read a docket, pull a document, and stay under the free quarterly fee threshold. With a free RECAP shortcut for most lookups.
Every PACER document anyone has ever pulled with the free RECAP browser extension is permanently mirrored at the CourtListener RECAP Archive. Heavily-watched cases are typically already there in full. Search by case name or number first; if the docket and the documents you need are already mirrored, you do not need a PACER account at all.
The walkthrough below covers PACER directly because some documents are not yet in RECAP, and because a free PACER account is useful even if you never spend a dollar. But check RECAP first.
If you are looking up a single case, you will probably finish in 5 to 10 minutes and pay nothing.
Before doing anything else, search the RECAP Archive for the case. If the docket is there and shows the entries you want with PDFs attached, your work is done. RECAP is free, no login required.
You will need PACER itself if the case is not in RECAP, if the document you want has not been pulled before, or if you need to confirm a filing was made today and RECAP has not synced yet.
Go to pacer.uscourts.gov and click "Register for an Account." Choose "PACER - Case Search Only" unless you are an attorney filing in federal court (most readers should pick case-search-only).
Registration asks for your name, mailing address, and a credit card. The card is held on file for billing only; it is not charged at signup. The system emails a username and instructions a few minutes later. There is no waiting list.
Federal cases live in court-specific systems. Bankruptcy cases sit in the bankruptcy court for the district where the debtor filed. District-court civil and criminal cases sit in their own district systems. Appellate cases live in their circuit's system.
If you know the court, log into that court's CM/ECF directly through the PACER court directory. If you do not know the court, use the PACER Case Locator, which searches every federal court at once. The Case Locator is the easiest first stop for most users.
Two ways in:
The docket report is the chronological list of every filing in the case. Each entry has a number, a date, a short text description, and (usually) a link to the PDF.
Reading tips for first-timers: start at entry 1 (the petition or complaint) and skim forward. "Notice" entries are routine. "Motion," "Order," and "Judgment" entries are usually the substantive turns. Bankruptcy dockets often include "Schedules" and "Statement of Financial Affairs" early on; these contain the debtor's financial picture.
In bankruptcy cases, the claims register is a separate report from the docket. Look for a "Claims" or "Claims Register" link in the case menu. It lists every creditor that filed a proof of claim, the date filed, the amount claimed, and the underlying claim PDF.
The claims register is what you want if you are checking whether a specific creditor filed against a debtor, or comparing claimed amounts to the debtor's listed schedules.
Click the document number in any docket entry. PACER shows a preview screen with the page count and the fee before charging anything. You confirm; PACER opens or downloads the PDF.
Downloading once is enough. PACER does not penalize you for re-opening a document you have already viewed in the same session, and you can save the PDF locally to read later.
PACER charges $0.10 per page with a $3.00 cap per document. Audio recordings are a flat $2.40 each and do not count against the cap. If your total billable activity in a calendar quarter (Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sep, Oct-Dec) stays under $30.00, your bill is waived and you owe nothing.
That free threshold is large. Pulling a 100-page docket plus three documents at the cap costs roughly $19. Most casual users never come close to $30 in a quarter and never see a bill.
The current PACER fee schedule is set by the U.S. Judicial Conference and applies uniformly across all federal courts.
What the cap means. A 50-page motion costs $3.00, not $5.00. A 28-page motion costs $2.80. Page counts above 30 are effectively free.
What the threshold means. If your total billable activity in a calendar quarter is under $30, the bill is waived. Your card on file is not charged. The threshold resets every quarter.
What is not charged. Account creation. The first page of any docket "summary" page. Court opinions designated as "free" by the court. Documents already mirrored to the RECAP Archive (these route around PACER entirely).
Fee waivers and exemptions. Federal courts can grant fee exemptions to qualified researchers, journalists, pro se litigants, and certain nonprofit organizations on a per-court basis. The exemption process requires a written request to the chief judge of the court, citing the work that justifies the exemption. It is not a fast process, but for sustained research use it can be worth it.
Some courts write 25-12345. Others write 2:25-cv-00123 (with judge initials and a longer sequence). When in doubt, copy the format the court itself uses on its docket page; pasting works more often than retyping.
Sealed and restricted entries appear in the docket as numbered rows but do not link to the document. The public can see that the entry exists but not what it says. This is the system working as designed; sealing is a court order.
Party search returns every case any matching person has appeared in, not just cases where they were the lead party. A common-name search can return thousands of rows. Always filter by state and court type to narrow.
The docket report is metered the same way as a document: $0.10 per page of the report, capped at $3.00. For long cases, ask for a date range or filter by document type to keep the page count down.
PACER bills by what you actually retrieve. Closing your browser does not end the session. Logging out cleanly between visits keeps your activity log tidy and makes any later billing dispute easier.
RECAP is a separate, donation-funded archive run by the Free Law Project. It mirrors PACER documents that users have pulled while running the RECAP browser extension. PACER does not promote it because it routes traffic away from PACER's fee system, but it is fully legal, public, and the largest free index of federal court documents in existence.
Yes. PACER is open to anyone who registers. You do not need to be an attorney or a party to a case. Registration requires a credit card on file, but the card is not charged at signup, and casual users who stay under $30 in fees per calendar quarter owe nothing.
Not exactly. PACER charges $0.10 per page with a $3.00 cap per document. However, if your total fees in a calendar quarter come in under $30.00, the bill is waived. Audio recordings have a flat $2.40 fee that does not count toward the cap. Most casual users never owe anything.
PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) is the federal judiciary's online portal for case dockets and documents from district, bankruptcy, and appellate courts. To use it: register at pacer.uscourts.gov, log in, pick a court (or use the Case Locator for a nationwide search), and search by case number or party name. The docket report shows every filing in the case, and most entries link to the underlying PDF.
Open the docket report for the case. Each entry that has a document attached shows a clickable link (often the entry number itself). Click the link, confirm the page count and fee on the preview screen, and PACER displays or downloads the PDF. Many bankruptcy court documents are also free on the RECAP Archive at CourtListener; check there before paying.
Use party-name search inside any single court, or use the PACER Case Locator for a nationwide search. Enter the last name first. The result set can be large because it returns every case any matching person has appeared in. Filter by state, court type (bankruptcy, district, appellate), and date range to narrow it down.
PACER is the official federal portal and charges per page. RECAP is a free public archive of donated PACER documents, hosted by the Free Law Project at CourtListener. If a document has been pulled by anyone using the RECAP browser extension, it is permanently free in the archive. Many heavily-watched cases are already fully in RECAP; checking there first can save the entire fee.
PACER posts maintenance windows and outages on the official status page at pacer.uscourts.gov. Individual court systems can also have local outages even when the main portal is up. If you cannot log in, check the status page before assuming the issue is on your end.
Yes. PACER requires a card on file at registration, but it is not charged at signup. The card is only billed if your quarterly activity exceeds $30.00. Many users never see a charge.
Yes. Federal courts can grant fee exemptions for academic research, journalism, pro se litigation, and certain nonprofit work. The exemption is requested in writing from the chief judge of the specific court, citing the project that justifies the exemption. The process is not fast and the exemption is per-court, but for sustained research use it can eliminate fees entirely.
You now have enough to register, find a case, read a docket, and pull a document. A few directions to take next: