For Northwestern Law students, Bloomberg Law is the go-to resource for federal court case dockets and filings. If you are asked to use PACER to find a docket or filing, use Bloomberg Law, instead, as the coverage is the same.
Coverage is as follows:
U.S. Supreme Court: 2003 to Present
U.S. Courts of Appeals: 1980-1999 to Present, depending on court
U.S. District Courts: 1989 to Present
U.S. Bankruptcy Courts: 1989 to Present
U.S. Tax Court: 1986 to Present
U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation: 1968 to Present
U.S. Court of Federal Claims: 1990 to Present
U.S. Court of International Trade: 2004 to Present
U.S. International Trade Commission: 1998 to Present
U.S. Bankr. Appellate Panel (BAP) for the First, Ninth and Tenth Circuit: 12/2006 to Present
After visiting http://www.bloomberglaw.com and entering your log-in credentials, select “Dockets” beneath the “Popular Links” header.
Alternatively, visit http://www.bloomberglaw.com/dockets and enter your log-in credentials.
First, select the court where the case was filed. You can do so by selecting “Browse Full List” and then drilling down through the options until you find the court you need. Alternatively, you can begin typing the name of the court in the “Courts” box, at which point the system will provide you with one or more courts matching your entry. Note: using either method, you can select multiple courts to search at once.
Once you’ve selected your court(s), you can enter identifying information in one or more of the following fields:
Keywords (e.g., complaint, transcript, “motion to dismiss,” etc.)
Click 
for an explanation of Bloomberg Law’s required Boolean search operators
One or more parties to the case, along with their role
Judge
Docket Number
Click for help formatting your docket number search.
Date Range
Attorney or Firm
Case Name
Cause of Action (e.g. Breach of Contract)
Type (Civil or Criminal)
Note: in addition to being useful for locating specific case dockets and/or filings, Bloomberg Law’s Dockets can be helpful for determining how a particular judge has ruled on a particular type of case or motion. For example, by selecting “U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois” in the “Courts” field, entering “Castillo” in the “Judge” field, and “28:1402 Medical Malpractice” in the “Cause of Action” field, we can learn more about medical malpractice actions heard by Chief Judge Ruben Castillo.
When viewing federal case dockets on Bloomberg Law, most filed documents are available for download. If you need to review a particular document, click the link to either "View" or "Request" that document beneath the "Action" column. Requesting a document incurs a charge for commercial Bloomberg Law accounts. However, for academic accounts, up to $1,500 in charges are waived per calendar year. When a document has become available for viewing, it will appear in your "Downloads" section and you will also receive an email notification.
When viewing a particular docket on Bloomberg Law, make sure to click "Update Docket" beneath the "Current As Of" header on the right-hand side of the page. After a few moments, you will receive a notification that the docket has been updated and the "Current As Of" date above the "Update Docket" link will reflect the current date. Bloomberg Law only updates individual dockets on a periodic basis, so clicking this link will ensure you are viewing the most up-to-date version of the docket.
Students, staff, and faculty at the law school are permitted to incur up to $1,500 in waived docket fees per calendar year. Common fees on Bloomberg Law include the following:
For a more detailed breakdown of dockets charges on Bloomberg Law, see Dockets Pricing for Law Schools.
If you are concerned that you may exceed your $1,500 limit or would like to discuss strategies for more efficient use of Bloomberg Law's dockets, please email law-reference@law.northwestern.edu or contract your library liaison.