Keeping Current with new developments in the law
How do you keep track of new developments in the legislation and court cases you need to follow closely? Do you subscribe to a tracking service? Receive email alerts? Or maintain an RSS feed? If not, perhaps you should! We have recommendations for the best free services available on the Web.
Court Trackers
PACER -- Some courts provide automatic case notification and alerts through Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds. PACER users can keep track of newly docketed events by subscribing to a court’s RSS feed, which is free and includes automatic notification of case activity, summarized text, and links to the document and docket report. You can view the document or docket report linked from the RSS feed by logging into PACER. Search for the court where the case is filed, using the Court CM/ECF Lookup, to find out if they have an RSS feed.
Court Listener – CourtListener was created in 2009 as an alert and awareness tool for people that were interested in keeping up with new cases or topics in the federal circuit courts. Three kinds of alerts are currently available: Search Alerts, RECAP Alerts for PACER, and Citation Alerts. For information and instructions for creating alerts, visit this Court Listener page.
Docket Alerts -- During the COVID-19 pandemic, American Legal Net will be offering for free its signature service, DocketAlerts.com, to assist remote workers. Register for free here and ALN will upgrade your account for no cost. Visit the Docket Alerts FAQ page for additional information.
Bill Trackers
MyTLO (Texas) – The MyTLO section of the Texas Legislature Online website offers personalized viewing of legislative content, including Bill Lists and Bill Alerts. Usage of the bill list, alert list, and saved search features requires registration. Service is free of charge.
GovTrack.us -- GovTrack offers many ways to get email alerts about bills in Congress. If you are interested in a particular bill, start by finding that bill. You can also get alerts for subject areas and bills assigned to committees. If you are interested in the legislative activity of your representative and senators, start by finding who represents you. Basic alerts include Major Legislative Activity, Upcoming Legislation, New Laws, All Legislative Activity, News Bills and Resolutions, and GovTrack Bill Summaries.
LegiScan – LegiScan provides services that bring all legislative information together into a single uniform interface. LegisScan provides a public service for concerned individuals tracking their home state and Congress. Free registration for the “OneVote” feature on the LegisScan website provides personal monitoring lists with saved searches from the national legislative search engine and private RSS feeds to keep you informed.
Congress.gov (Federal) – Alerts are emails sent to you when a measure (bill or resolution), nomination, member profile, or committee profile has been updated with new information, or when your saved search has new or changed results. Updates to actions, bill text, cosponsors, or summaries will trigger a legislation alert unless you have selected additional changes for which you wish to be notified. Nomination alerts are sent when a new action is added. Member alerts are sent when a member sponsors or cosponsors a bill. Committee profile alerts are sent when a measure, executive communication, nomination, or treaty is referred to the committee, or when the committee publishes a committee report, committee print, or committee meeting announcement. The Congressional Record alert notifies you when the latest issue is available on Congress.gov.