A majority of docket sheets and documents in pending civil and criminal cases are available electronically through the Court’s Case Management / Electronic Case Filing (CM/ECF) and PACER Systems. Once you have logged in, select Query and enter either a party name or case number and select Run Query. If more than one case number comes up, put a check mark in the box next to the case that you are looking for and select Run Query again. After the case number is successfully retrieved, select Docket Report to obtain and view the case docket sheet. Scroll through the docket, and when you come across a document that you wish to retrieve, click on the blue number to the left of the docket entry text. Copies obtained electronically through PACER are subject to fees. See www.pacer.gov for more information.

If the docket sheet for the case that you are looking for says “Proceedings not Available,” or if the number next to the docket entry that you want to access is not available for electronic viewing and the case has been closed for 5 years or more, you will need to contact the Clerk’s Office as the case file and all corresponding documents may have been shipped to the Court’s Federal Records Center in Chicago, Illinois. Once you have obtained the necessary file retrieval information from the Clerk’s Office, you may then request your copies directly from the Federal Records Center by clicking here. You may, however, still request the Clerk’s Office to retrieve the file from the Records Center and complete your copy request. Please be advised that there will be a retrieval fee that must be paid prior to the file being requested, in addition to a charge per page for the copies that you require. See the fee schedule page for current fees.

Although you are strongly encouraged to obtain the information that you seek through the CM/ECF and PACER systems, the Clerk’s Office will fulfill all copy requests for a per page fee. If you would like the document to be certified, that can also be done for an additional fee.

All fees must be prepaid.