National Archives Court Records
For Court Records less than 15 Years Old
Please note: Generally, federal court records less than 15 years old are not held by the National Archives and are still in the possession of individual courts.
To obtain access to those records, researchers must contact the appropriate federal court.
Online access to case and docket information is provided for a fee by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts through PACER. The court may refer you to a Federal Records Center to obtain copies.
Locate and Order court records in the Federal Records Centers
Records of the U.S. federal courts held at the National Archives include records created by:
The types of records are primarily case files. Categories of case files include:
In addition to case files, other type of records are:
The earliest court records in our holdings date to approximately 1790.
Finding Federal Court Records Held by the National Archives
To identify and locate court records held by the National Archives, consult the National Archives Catalog.
For convenience of access, most of our holdings from the federal court system are stored at National Archives locations around the country. For instance, records of the New Hampshire federal courts are currently located at the National Archives at Boston in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Records of federal district courts and courts of appeal in different states are located at the following National Archives locations:
Records of Courts of Appeal are stored at these locations:
Records of the Supreme Court are located at the National Archives at Washington, DC, with the exception of some special media materials and Watergate files which are at the National Archives at College Park.
An exception to the national distribution of court records is when certain holdings that are infrequently used may be centrally stored at a National Archives facility in Kansas for efficiency. In those instances copies may be ordered, or may be consulted at the National Archives at Kansas City by special arrangement. Whenever this applies to records this information is noted in the National Archives Catalog.
Additional Resources
For more information about the history and organization of the federal courts, see: