The University of Alabama School of Law
The University of Alabama School of Law
Rulings and opinions are important but don't forget that briefs, motions, and filings can be valuable resources. These will include information that was considered by the court and may have additional citations or arguments beyond what is included in the opinion.
If you're working in Westlaw and you're already looking at a case, you can find these documents in the "Filings" tab just under the case name towards the left of the screen. You can also find briefs under the "Content Types" tab on the main page. There is a link labeled "Briefs" that will direct you to a page that has briefs organized by jurisdiction or topic.
Similar to Westlaw, you can find these documents in the "Filings" tab, however, it's on the far right of the screen. You can also find them on the home page in the "Briefs, Pleadings & Motions" link. If you follow the link, you'll be able to search for briefs, pleadings and motions either by keyword search, "Content Type," "Jurisdiction," or "Practice Area."
Bloomberg Law has a unique docket search overlay for the federal court's PACER system. You can look up specific cases but also search by keyword, nature of suit and other options. If you're looking up a specific case, you'll see several links to the right of the case. You'll want to select "General Info." After doing so, you'll see an option for "Related Dockets." If you open the docket, you'll find the option to view or download the brief, motion, etc.
Some of the documents require payment to access, however, as a law student, you have an annual $1,500 stipend to cover these costs.
Another way to find dockets on Bloomberg is to change search from "All Content" to "Court Dockets" and then click "Select Sources."
A docket search box will appear, where users can input information to help them narrow their search, such as parties, docket numbers, date, court, etc.
As an example, users can input "Obergefell" in Parties, and then select "U.S. Supreme Court Dockets" in Courts. This will narrow the search to "Federal Court Dockets." After hitting enter, the user will get 16 results. They can then use the filters on the left side of the screen and filter results to just the "U.S. Supreme Court," which will return only 4 results. From there, the user can look through the results to determine if the search returned the results they were hoping for.