A docket in the United States is the official summary of proceedings in a court of law. In the United Kingdom in modern times it is an official document relating to delivery of something, with similar meanings to these two elsewhere. In the late nineteenth century the term referred to the large folio books in which clerks recorded all filings and court proceedings for each case, although use has been documented since 1485.
Historical usage
The term originated in England; it was recorded in the form "doggette" in 1485, and later also as doket, dogget(t), docquett, docquet, and docket. The derivation and original sense are obscure, although it has been suggested that it derives from the verb "to dock", in the sense of cutting short (e.g. the tail of a dog or horse); a long document summarised has been docked, or docket using old spelling. It was long used in England for legal purposes (there was an official called the Clerk of the Dockets in the early nineteenth century), although discontinued in modern English legal usage.
Docket was described in The American and English Encyclopedia of Law as a courts summary, digest, or register. A usage note in this 1893 text warns that term docket and calendar are not synonymous.
A 1910 law dictionary states the terms trial docket and calendar are synonymous.
United States
In the United States, court dockets are considered to be public records, and many public records databases and directories include references to court dockets. Rules of civil procedure often state that the court clerk shall record certain information "on the docket" when a specific event occurs. The Federal Courts use the PACER (Public Access Court Electronic Records) system to house dockets and documents on all federal civil, criminal and bankruptcy cases, available to the public for a fee.
The term is also sometimes used informally to refer to a court calendar, the schedule of the appearances, arguments and/or hearings scheduled for a court. It may also be used as a metonym to refer to a court's caseload as a whole. Thus, either sense may be intended (depending upon the context) in the frequent use of the phrase "crowded dockets" by legal journalists and commentators.
Supreme Court
In its meaning as calendar, the docket of the United States Supreme Court is different both in its composition and significance. The justices of the Supreme Court have almost complete discretion over the cases they choose to hear. From the large number of cases which it receives, only 70 to 100 will be placed on the docket. The Solicitor General decides which cases to present on behalf of the federal government.
Court docket links
Official
- Supreme Court
- United States Supreme Court Calendar
- Court of Appeals
Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) is a system for public access to court records, subject to payment.
- Federal Circuit
- First Circuit Court of Appeals, Court Calendar
- Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Court Calendar
- Third Circuit Court of Appeals PACER
- Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals PACER
- Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Appeals Calendar
- Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, Oral Argument Calendar
- Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Oral Arguments
- Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Court Calendar
- Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, Court Calendar
- Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Court Calendar, and dockets via PACER
- Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals; Argument Calendar
- Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals "Voluntary filing to begin on 1 January 2012"
- Federal District Courts
- Iowa
- Northern District of Iowa Has Decisions/Verdicts page. Links to PACER
- Northern District of Iowa Bankruptcy
- Southern District of Iowa
- Southern District of Iowa Bankruptcy, Calendars
Unofficial
- Docket Alarm, Inc. provides a search engine and alerts for Federal Court dockets and bankruptcies, as well as providing programmatic access via an API.
- Inforuptcy.com is a PACER alternative website that provides all queries including dockets for U.S. bankruptcy courts.
- LegalDockets.com is the oldest and most reliable docket portal on the internet. In addition to linking to all PACER courts, it also links to all state court dockets, which can be very difficult to find.
See also
- Calendar
- Minutes
- Schedule
- Transcript (law)
References
