United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

The Eighth Circuit hears appeals from district courts located in Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Legal Materials

The Court Web site posts contact information, opinions back to 1995, briefs back to 2000, rules, forms, orders, reports and jury instructions (www.ca8.uscourts.gov/). For more information call the Court at 314-244-2400 (St. Louis) or 651-848-1300 (St. Paul).

Opinions are also available free from Google Scholar (1920s-present), Justia (1950-present) and FindLaw (1996-present). For deeper databases, use Lexis, Westlaw,LOIS, Fastcase and/or VersusLaw.

Case Files / Records & Briefs: Pleadings, Briefs and just about everything else in the case file are now available through PACER and all the related Federal court docket services. Selected older briefs back to 1980 are available on Westlaw. Selected briefs back to 1893 are available in the Records and Briefs sets published variously in print and microfiche; the University of Iowa has a set. Otherwise, you can get the case file from the Federal Archives or hire a document retrieval service to get copies for you.

Oral Arguments: The Court posts recordings of oral arguments starting in 2000. You can search transcripts of oral arguments on Westlaw (CTA8-ORALARG).

Practice Guides: The Court posts research aids including a publication entitledInternal Operating Procedures. Minnesota CLE publishes the Eighth Circuit Appellate Manual.

See Also

Case Pulls
Court Clerks
Court Houses
Docket Sheets
Federal Court Rules
Judges
Jury Instructions
United States Court of Appeals
United States Courts, generally
Unreported Decisions