RECAP Archive: Free Federal Court Documents

Hundreds of millions of federal court filings — motions, briefs, orders, complaints — available for free through the RECAP Archive. No PACER fees, no paywall.

PACER — the federal courts' electronic records system — charges $0.10 per page to view documents (capped at $3.00 per document). For a pro se litigant researching a case, those costs add up fast. A single docket with 200 entries could cost $50+ to review in full.

The RECAP Archive is the free alternative. Operated by Free Law Project (the same nonprofit behind CourtListener), RECAP collects federal court documents from PACER users who share them via the RECAP browser extension — and makes them available to everyone for free.

What the RECAP Archive Contains

The archive doesn't contain every document from every case. It depends on crowd-sourcing: a document is only in RECAP if someone with the extension has previously downloaded it from PACER. Major cases with lots of public interest tend to have comprehensive coverage. Smaller cases may have partial coverage or none.

How to Search the RECAP Archive

Search on CourtListener

The RECAP Archive is integrated directly into CourtListener. To search for federal dockets and filings:

  1. Go to courtlistener.com
  2. Click "RECAP Archive" in the top navigation, or go directly to the RECAP search page
  3. Search by case name, party name, docket number, or keywords
  4. Results show docket entries with links to available documents

Documents that are available for free in RECAP are marked with a link. Documents that haven't been uploaded to RECAP yet will show the docket entry text but won't have a downloadable file — for those, you'd still need to go to PACER.

Search by Docket Number

If you know the specific case number (e.g., 1:25-cv-01234), search for it directly. This is the fastest way to find documents in a specific case.

Browse Specific Courts

You can filter RECAP results by specific federal court, narrowing your search to a particular district or circuit.

💡 Check RECAP before going to PACER. Before you spend money downloading a document from PACER, search for it in RECAP first. If it's there, you get it free. If it's not, download it from PACER with the RECAP extension installed — your download will be automatically contributed to the archive for the next person.

Why RECAP Matters for Pro Se Litigants

Research Similar Cases for Free

Want to see how other pro se litigants in your district have structured their complaints? How they responded to motions to dismiss? What evidence they submitted at summary judgment? Search RECAP for cases similar to yours and read the actual filings. This is the closest thing to a free litigation template library.

Track Your Own Case

Set up a docket alert on CourtListener for your case. When new entries appear on the docket, you'll be notified by email — without having to log into PACER to check.

Research Your Judge

Search RECAP for other cases handled by your assigned judge. Read their orders and opinions to understand their style, their approach to pro se cases, and how they've ruled on issues similar to yours. This intelligence is invaluable for tailoring your filings.

Save Money

PACER charges can be significant over the life of a case. Every document you can find in RECAP instead of PACER is money saved. If you're proceeding in forma pauperis, PACER fees may be waived — but not all courts apply the waiver consistently, and the waiver has a quarterly cap.

How to Contribute to RECAP

RECAP is a community resource. It works because users share the documents they download from PACER. You can contribute by installing the RECAP browser extension — it automatically uploads any PACER document you download to the RECAP Archive. You don't pay anything extra, and you help every future researcher who needs that document.

⚠️ RECAP does not include sealed or restricted documents. Documents filed under seal or subject to protective orders are not available through RECAP. The archive only contains publicly available court records.

RECAP Archive vs. PACER

RECAP is not a replacement for PACER — it's a supplement. PACER has every document from every federal case. RECAP has the subset that users have shared. For high-profile cases, RECAP coverage may be nearly complete. For small cases, you may find only a few entries or none.

The smart workflow: search RECAP first, go to PACER for anything that's missing, and install the RECAP extension so your PACER downloads benefit the community.

For a PACER walkthrough, see our PACER Tutorial for Beginners.

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