New Federal Cases Filed In Maryland

Most of us use Pacer to find information about a particular federal case. To do so, you simply register with Pacer, log-in through the US Party/Case Index, and then search for docket information and/or full text documents related to a particular federal case. But what if you're not searching for a particular federal case--instead, you're interested in obtaining a list of newly filed federal cases on a particular subject? Can you use Pacer to do this? The answer is, you can, but instead of accessing Pacer through the US/Party Case Index, you access it through the CM/ECF (Case Management/Electronic Case Files) log-in page. For example, if you're interested in obtaining a list of Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases filed since January of this year in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland, select the appropriate link from the CM/ECF page. After you log-in, select "Reports" at the top of the page and then "Cases" on the next page. On this page, select your case type (bankruptcy), chapter (11), and date range (eg., Jan 1-Jan.22) and then hit "Run Report." The system will then give you a listing of all Chapter 11 cases filed this year in the Maryland Bankruptcy Court. You can also do this for civil and criminal cases. Simply log-in to the CM/ECF page for the US District Court for the District of Maryland and then follow the same steps as above. In this case, though, you'll be selecting from a "Nature of Suit" list as opposed to a type of bankruptcy.