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A federal docket is the chronological list of everything filed or entered in a case: the case number tells you the court, year, case type and judge; each numbered entry records a filing, order or event with a date and a short description; and most entries link to a PDF. Reading one well means knowing the case number anatomy, the common entry types, and how to find the few entries that matter among the hundreds that do not.
This guide is for lawyers who need to get up to speed on a case quickly, whether it is their own, opposing counsel's prior litigation, or a case they want to cite.
Anatomy of a case number
A typical federal district court case number looks like this:
1:24-cv-01234-ABC
Reading left to right:
| Part | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Office | 1 | The divisional office within the district where the case was filed |
| Year | 24 | Two-digit year of filing |
| Case type | cv | Civil. Other common codes: cr (criminal), mc (miscellaneous), md (multidistrict litigation), and in bankruptcy courts bk (bankruptcy case) and ap (adversary proceeding) |
| Sequence | 01234 | The case's number within that office, year and type |
| Judge | ABC | Initials of the assigned district judge; a second set of initials, if present, is the magistrate judge |
Districts vary. Some omit the office number, some use different judge initial conventions, and a case that is reassigned gets new initials. Appellate case numbers are simpler, usually year and sequence (for example 24-1234), and the Supreme Court uses year and sequence with a leading term year.
When citing a docket, the convention is the case name, case number, court, and the docket entry number and date, for example "Dkt. 45" or "ECF No. 45".
Common docket entries
Entries appear in filing order with a number, a date and a description written by the filer or the clerk. The ones you will see in almost every civil case:
- Complaint (usually entry 1). The initial pleading. Exhibits are often attached as sub-entries (1-1, 1-2).
- Civil cover sheet and summons. Administrative. Summons returned executed tells you when service was made, which starts the answer clock under Rule 12.
- Notice of appearance. Who represents whom. Useful for identifying opposing counsel's firm.
- Answer or motion to dismiss. The defendant's first substantive response. A Rule 12(b) motion is common and the docket will show the opposition and reply that follow.
- Scheduling order. Entered under Rule 16 after the parties' Rule 26(f) conference. It sets discovery cutoffs and motion deadlines and is one of the most useful entries in the case.
- Amended complaint. Filed as of right or with leave. This is usually the operative pleading.
- Motions, oppositions, replies. Each is a separate entry. Descriptions typically say "MOTION to Compel", "RESPONSE in Opposition", "REPLY to Response".
- Orders. The judge's rulings. Some are full memorandum opinions; many are one paragraph. Look for "ORDER granting" or "ORDER denying".
- Minute entries. Clerk's notes on a hearing or conference: who appeared, what happened, what was set. Often text-only.
- Notices of deposition, subpoenas, discovery certificates. Discovery itself is not filed in federal court, but notices sometimes are.
- Stipulations. Agreements between the parties, usually about deadlines, which become effective when the judge signs off.
- Judgment. The final disposition, and the entry from which the appeal deadline runs.
- Notice of appeal. Starts the appellate case.
- Sealed entries. Shown as filed but with the document restricted. The entry description usually says why.
Criminal dockets add indictments, arraignment minutes, plea agreements, sentencing memoranda and the judgment in a criminal case. Bankruptcy dockets have their own vocabulary and are often much longer.
Finding what you need
A large case can have thousands of entries. Nobody reads them all. Use the description text and the entry types to jump to what matters.
The operative complaint
Search the docket for "amended complaint" and take the most recent one. Then check two things: that it was not struck (look for an order shortly after), and that no later motion for leave to amend was granted without the amended pleading being separately docketed. If there is no amended complaint, entry 1 is operative. Note that when a motion to dismiss is granted in part, the plaintiff often files an amended complaint that drops claims, and the earlier complaint is history.
A particular ruling
Search for "order" plus the subject ("order granting motion to compel", "memorandum opinion"). If you know roughly when the ruling was, sort by date. For substantive rulings, look for entries described as "MEMORANDUM OPINION", "MEMORANDUM AND ORDER" or "OPINION AND ORDER", which are the ones likely to have reasoning worth citing. A bare "ORDER granting 45 Motion" may be one line.
The current status
Read the last ten entries. They will tell you whether the case is in discovery, awaiting a ruling, stayed, settled or closed. A "notice of settlement" or "stipulation of dismissal" ends the case; a "judgment" and a "notice of appeal" send it upstairs.
Who the players are
Notices of appearance, substitutions of counsel and the parties list at the top of the docket. For cases with many parties, the header lists each party and their counsel.
Deadlines
The scheduling order and any amendments to it. Search for "scheduling order" and "amended scheduling order" and read the latest.
PACER, RECAP and reading filings free
PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) at pacer.uscourts.gov is the federal judiciary's system. Docket sheets and documents are available for a per-page fee with a per-document cap, and fees are waived for accounts that stay under a quarterly threshold. Light use is effectively free; pulling a whole large case is not. Anyone can register.
RECAP (free.law/recap) is a browser extension from the Free Law Project. When a user with RECAP installed buys a document on PACER, the extension uploads a copy to the public RECAP Archive on CourtListener. Anyone can then read that document free. When you view a docket on PACER with RECAP installed, it shows you which documents are already in the archive so you do not pay for them twice. The archive is large but holds only what someone has bought, so for an obscure case you may still be the first.
Court opinions are free on PACER regardless, and courts post many opinions on their own websites.
The Frix Law Library dockets scope holds about 71 million federal docket entries and 1.7 million filed documents, built from public sources including the RECAP Archive and updated daily. You can search by case number, party, judge or the text of entries and documents without an account or fee. It has the same limit as RECAP: documents that have never entered the public archive are not there.
A reading checklist
When you open an unfamiliar docket:
- Read the header: court, judge, case type, parties, counsel, filing date, status.
- Read entry 1 and the operative complaint.
- Find the scheduling order and note the deadlines.
- Search for "opinion" and "memorandum" and read the substantive rulings.
- Read the last ten entries for current status.
- Note any sealed entries, because they usually mean something the parties fought over.
- If the case was appealed, pull the appellate docket too.
How to do this in Frix
Open the dockets scope, search by case number or party, and the docket appears with entries in order. Filter by entry type or search the text to jump to the operative pleading or a ruling. Documents in the archive open in the browser. Judge names link to the judge profile, which lists the judge's other cases and authored opinions, and party names link to other cases involving them.
Donna can read a docket for you. Ask at /ask: "What is the current status of [case number] and what did the court hold on the motion to dismiss?" She answers with numbered citations to the entries and documents she relied on. Three questions are free without an account.
Two limits: coverage is federal only, and documents that have never been purchased from PACER by a RECAP user are not in the library. For those, PACER remains the source. Nothing on the site is legal advice.
For where dockets fit alongside opinions and statutes, see our roundup of free legal research tools and the guide to researching a judge before a hearing.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions
In a number like 1:24-cv-01234-ABC, the 1 is the divisional office, 24 is the filing year, cv is the case type (civil), 01234 is the sequence number, and ABC are the assigned judge's initials. Formats vary slightly by district.
Frix · Editorial team
We write about legal research and running a small firm. Every case and statute we mention links to its record in the free Frix Law Library, so you can read the source yourself. This is general information, not legal advice for any matter.