# How To Do I Research Civil Lawsuit Against A Company? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 2, 2005, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-i-research-civil-lawsuit-against-a-company/310792 "2005-07-02T03:14:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![inkleberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@inkleberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inkleberry)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-i-research-civil-lawsuit-against-a-company/310792/1 "2005-07-02T03:14:22Z")
How might I search to find out if Acme Corp. was ever sued in civil court in the state of CA? Is there a way to search court documents or outcomes? ---
**Author:** ![Sarah\_Woodruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sarah\_Woodruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarah_Woodruff)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-i-research-civil-lawsuit-against-a-company/310792/2 "2005-07-02T03:29:45Z")
I’ve not had very much experience with US legal databases, but perhaps [this one](http://www.findlaw.com/01topics/index.html) would be a good one to check out. ---
**Author:** ![inkleberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@inkleberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inkleberry)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-i-research-civil-lawsuit-against-a-company/310792/3 "2005-07-02T03:38:25Z")
> [@Sarah Woodruff](#): > > I’ve not had very much experience with US legal databases, but perhaps [this one](http://www.findlaw.com/01topics/index.html) would be a good one to check out. AFAICT, they do not have a way to search civil suit filings in the state of CA (unless they went to the supreme court or appeals). But good resource otherwise! ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-i-research-civil-lawsuit-against-a-company/310792/4 "2005-07-02T03:52:00Z")
There are [people](http://www.dataland.com/subscribrs/cdocket.htm) who will do it for a fee. ---
**Author:** ![inkleberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@inkleberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inkleberry)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-i-research-civil-lawsuit-against-a-company/310792/5 "2005-07-02T04:06:09Z")
> [@don't ask](#): > > There are [people](http://www.dataland.com/subscribrs/cdocket.htm) who will do it for a fee. True. But I was kinda hoping to do it myself for free. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-i-research-civil-lawsuit-against-a-company/310792/6 "2005-07-02T04:11:50Z")
In the federal system it is easy. To find state lawsuits is time consuming in some states. Here is a good resource. [http://www.virtualchase.com/resources/dockets.html](http://www.virtualchase.com/resources/dockets.html) Hope this helps a little. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-i-research-civil-lawsuit-against-a-company/310792/7 "2005-07-02T04:13:02Z")
> [@inkleberry](#): > > True. But I was kinda hoping to do it myself for free. Can you be more specific about what you are looking for? Where is the company located? ---
**Author:** ![inkleberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@inkleberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inkleberry)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-i-research-civil-lawsuit-against-a-company/310792/8 "2005-07-02T04:36:54Z")
> [@Gfactor](#): > > Can you be more specific about what you are looking for? Where is the company located? I’m looking for civil suit cases, most likely small claims, against a company in Alameda County, CA. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-i-research-civil-lawsuit-against-a-company/310792/9 "2005-07-02T04:49:37Z")
Here’s the deal. There is no statewide index for court file information. That information is maintained by the individual counties. [Alameda County](http://apps.alameda.courts.ca.gov/fortecgi/fortecgi.exe?ServiceName=DomainWebService&TemplateName=index.html), for instance, has an online index. But Alameda’s only lets you lookup by case number. And Alameda will probably have the most cases. You should call the court clerk and ask them to look for you. Sometimes they will. You can find the individual court websites by googling “superior court [county]”. Once you find them, you’ll have to figure out how to use the search engine and what it will give you. ---
**Author:** ![Neptunian\_Slug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Neptunian\_Slug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptunian_Slug)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-i-research-civil-lawsuit-against-a-company/310792/10 "2005-07-02T17:13:59Z")
> [@inkleberry](#): > > How might I search to find out if Acme Corp. was ever sued in civil court in the state of CA? Is there a way to search court documents or outcomes? As a corollary to that question, is there a way to search Federal or State Criminal cases? My company had a wee bit of an embezzlement, and even my best informants are tight lipped about this. I wanted to find out if I can get some information about the arrest and charges. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-i-research-civil-lawsuit-against-a-company/310792/11 "2005-07-02T23:47:04Z")
> [@E-Diddy](#): > > As a corollary to that question, is there a way to search Federal or State Criminal cases? My company had a wee bit of an embezzlement, and even my best informants are tight lipped about this. I wanted to find out if I can get some information about the arrest and charges. Federal is easy. There is a good index that includes most of the courts, and a few other toys [here](http://www.virtualchase.com/resources/criminal_records.html). The same link has info on state criminal research. You are more likely to be able to find conviction records than records of charges because many states have their offender database online.