> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://support.vlex.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://support.vlex.com/vincent-by-vlex/vincent/core-workflows/research-us-court-dockets-with-docket-insights-in-vincent.md).

# Research US Court Dockets with Docket Insights in Vincent

Use Docket Insights to search US court dockets, read filings, and profile judges and opposing counsel from inside your Vincent conversation.

#### Summary

Use **Docket Insights** to search US court dockets, read filings, and profile judges and opposing counsel from inside your Vincent conversation, no separate docket service required.

{% hint style="warning" %}
**United States only.** Docket Insights draws on Docket Alarm's court record database, which covers US courts exclusively. It is not available for matters in other jurisdictions, and users outside the US will not be able to run docket research through Vincent.
{% endhint %}

### Why This is Important

Litigation work depends on live case intelligence: what has been filed, how the assigned judge tends to rule, what opposing counsel has argued before. Until now, answering those questions meant leaving Vincent for PACER or a third-party docket service, retrieving the information manually, and returning to Vincent to reason about it.

Docket Insights closes that gap. Docket research now happens in the same conversation where you research the **vLex Library** and draft your brief, which means you can move from *"what is the standard for this motion"* to *"how has this judge ruled on it"* to *"pull the actual briefs the parties filed"* in one continuous thread, without a context switch and without a second subscription to maintain.

### Before You Start

Confirm the following before running your first docket query:

* Your jurisdiction is set to a **United States** jurisdiction.
* **Agentic Mode** is active. Docket Insights only runs in Agentic Mode, see Step 1.
* To open the underlying court documents from links in Vincent's answer, you also need a **Docket Alarm** subscription (or **Clio Docket**, if you are working in Clio Work). You can run docket research and read Vincent's analysis without one.

{% hint style="info" %}
If you do not see Docket Insights available in your environment, contact your administrator or account manager.
{% endhint %}

### How to Use Docket Insights

#### Step 1: Confirm Agentic Mode is Active

1. Open **Vincent**.
2. Click the **+** button in the input area.
3. Locate the **Agentic Mode** toggle and confirm it is switched on.

<figure><img src="https://1556743161-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-MS8Dq_iqEIflAmbaOkI-887967055%2Fuploads%2FwvujWDRNGzMMS7KCpsZX%2FScreenshot%202026-08-20%20at%202.03.20%E2%80%AFPM.png?alt=media&amp;token=071ce0c6-a11f-4c97-9e83-6f7c4b37ad86" alt=""><figcaption><p>Docket Insights will not activate in Classic Vincent. If your docket questions are being answered from case law rather than court records, this toggle is the first thing to check.</p></figcaption></figure>

Docket Insights will not activate in Classic Vincent. If your docket questions are being answered from case law rather than court records, this toggle is the first thing to check.

#### Step 2: Ask Your Question

You have two options:

* **Ask naturally.** Type your question and let Vincent route it. You do not need to know which research tool applies, Vincent recognises when a request calls for live court records and runs docket research automatically.
* **Invoke it directly.** Type `/docket` in the prompt box and select **Docket Insights** from the **Skills** menu. Vincent inserts a starter prompt you can complete, for example: *"Pull the docket for \[case name/number] in \[court]. Summarize the key filings and current status."*

<figure><img src="https://1556743161-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-MS8Dq_iqEIflAmbaOkI-887967055%2Fuploads%2FT4YhMd9v1fl4Lz8GZEji%2FScreenshot%202026-08-20%20at%201.39.13%E2%80%AFPM.png?alt=media&amp;token=65b9d906-902d-4b93-bd6c-1d1314b450ea" alt=""><figcaption><p>Ask naturally or invoke <code>/docket</code> Vincent handles the rest.</p></figcaption></figure>

#### Step 3: Review Vincent's Process

Expand the **Show process** panel to see which capabilities Vincent activated, which searches it ran, and how it reasoned through your request. For docket work this is worth reading: it tells you which courts were searched and which filings Vincent actually opened.

#### Step 4: Iterate With Follow-Up Questions

Context is retained across turns, so you can refine without starting over. Narrow by date, judge, court, or outcome; drill into a specific case Vincent surfaced; or pivot from a docket question to a doctrinal one in the same thread.

### How Vincent Chooses Between Docket Research and Legal Research

Vincent selects the right source based on what you are asking for:

| If your question is about                                                                                                                        | Vincent runs                                                   |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| What actually happened in court, a specific fact pattern, how a judge or opposing counsel tends to rule, or the motions and briefs parties filed | Docket research against real court filings                     |
| The law itself, the standard for a claim, what a rule requires, how a doctrine works                                                             | Legal research against published authority in the vLex Library |
| Both, *"what is the standard, and has this argument actually worked in this court?"*                                                             | Both, combined into a single answer                            |

### What You Can Research with Docket Insights

**Courts and case search**

* Search across US court records by party name, attorney, judge, legal concept, case type, date range, or dollar amount.
* Find a case from an informal description, *"the Apple Samsung patent case in California"*  without an exact docket number.
* Search all 94 federal districts, bankruptcy courts, PTAB, TTAB, ITC, FERC, and FTC.

**Case details and timelines**

* Pull a full docket sheet: every filing with its date, description, and document link.
* See parties, counsel, related cases, and structured claims.
* Summarise the current stage of a case and what has happened so far.

**Documents and filings**

* Read and extract text from complaints, motions, orders, briefs, and opinions.
* Ask plain-language questions about a case, *"Has the defendant filed a motion to dismiss?"*
* Generate a structured complaint summary and extract causes of action with their statutory references.

**Parties, attorneys, and firms**

* Research a company's litigation history across courts and practice areas.
* Profile opposing counsel: caseload, preferred courts, notable matters, recent activity.
* Look up attorney billing rates where they appear in court fee applications.

**Judges**

* Profile a judge's ruling patterns across motions to dismiss, summary judgment, TROs, sanctions, and 220+ other motion categories.
* Identify typical timelines between filing and ruling for a specific judge and motion type.
* Surface arguments that have succeeded with, or drawn scepticism from, a specific judge.

**Outcomes and judgments**

* Extract structured judgment details from resolved cases: who prevailed, damages, attorney fees, costs, and judgment type.

#### Example Prompts

* *"In the NFL Sunday Ticket Antitrust Litigation, how did the defence use Daubert principles to lay the groundwork for post-trial rulings in favour of the NFL? What tactics against economic experts could be used in similar antitrust matters?"*
* *"Identify the types of cases the Dykema law firm typically handles, and analyse which procedural and substantive strategies make them successful."*
* *"Provide a profile of how Chief Judge Cronan handles bankruptcy cases in the Southern District of New York. Specifically, how likely is he to dismiss, partially or entirely, a breach of contract case?"*

### What to Keep in Mind

* **Coverage is strongest in federal courts.** State court coverage varies, robust in major metropolitan courts, thinner in smaller ones. If results come back sparse for a state matter, Vincent will explain why.
* **Results may not be real time.** Docket Insights searches a cached database of court records, which can run a few hours to several days behind live filings. On an active matter, verify current case status in the court record before relying on it.
* **Ask for patterns, not counts.** Vincent identifies patterns and examples from the cases it reviews, but cannot reliably produce exact totals such as *"granted 47 of 62 motions."* Treat its findings as well-evidenced tendencies rather than statistics.
* **Some documents need one extra step.** Vincent reads documents already held in Docket Alarm's cache. If a filing has not been retrieved before, Vincent can see the docket entry but not the document's contents. Docket Alarm subscribers can open the document directly in Docket Alarm and then re-run the Vincent query, the document will then be available.

### Best Practices & Pro Tips

* **Name the judge&#x20;*****and*****&#x20;the legal theory.** Docket Insights returns markedly better judicial analysis when your prompt specifies both, *"Judge Chen on breach of contract claims"* rather than *"Judge Chen on contracts."* The narrower the legal question, the more relevant the rulings Vincent surfaces.
* **Frame judicial research as strategy, not statistics.** Instead of asking how often a judge grants a motion, ask which arguments have succeeded and which drew scepticism, and what the typical timeline from filing to ruling looks like. That is the analysis that changes how you draft, and it plays to what Docket Insights does well.
* **Chain the research in one thread.** Establish the legal standard first, then ask how your assigned judge has applied it, then ask Vincent to pull the strongest analogous briefs. Because context carries across turns, each answer builds on the last, and you finish with a complete picture you can take into drafting.

### Related Articles

* [Compare Jurisdictions](/vincent-by-vlex/vincent/core-workflows/compare-jurisdictions.md)
* [Ask a Research Question](/vincent-by-vlex/vincent/core-workflows/ask-a-research-question.md)

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