Want to research court cases, can't afford lexis or westlaw.. ?

Question

My goal is to find all cases (depending on how many) in a 2 year peroid (all federal all states) that have to do with a subject.. when i find all the cases i want to download the PDF of each COMPLAINT, a docket summary, and the final judgement.

sounds hard? but it shouldn't be.. pacer lets me search all cases in a second, and i can download anything i want for .08....

but i am not sure how to search..

the cases i wnat are this crime:

Conspiracy to Commit Criminal Copyright Infringement by Electronic Means

Criminal Copyright Infringement by Electronic Means, and Aiding and Abetting

i can't search by that , i can only search by NAME in pacer.. i tried to use the catagory "copyright" but that didn't help.

please help me

Answer 1

PACER is only going to help you with Federal cases and from the details you gave above, your only option is to search by Copyright Infringement and narrow it down from there.  PACER (as you may know) will give you all the pleadings -- including the complaint and final judgment, if any.  Not all state records are available on-line.  I'm more familiar with LEXIS and even though it's cost-prohibitive, it will tell you what states have records on-line.  However, with LEXIS (and I admit it's been a while since I've done this), I believe you can get case numbers, and other minimal information, but you won't be able to get court documents without placing an order with LEXIS to obtain the documents.  An alternative is to determine the court location and then attempt to find the court's website to see what is publicly available without going directly to the courthouse.  In most instances though, either you or an attorney service will have to go to the court to obtain the documents.  Good luck.  That's no small project you're working on.

Answer 2

As you are looking for trial court documents, not appellate court decisions, there is no such service available.  You would have to visit every courthouse in the country.  If you want to read appellate court decisions for free, try findlaw.com.  The search engine sucks but that is about your only option.