How to Search Legal Documents on Trellis

Overview

Trellis gives you searchable access to hundreds of millions of filed court documents from state trial courts across the country — the complaints, motions, briefs, orders, and pleadings that show how cases are actually litigated in practice, not just how the law is written.

Unlike traditional legal research tools that focus on appellate opinions, Trellis is built around trial court activity. That means you can find the documents that shape real litigation strategy: how a motion to compel was argued in a similar case, what a repeat plaintiff's complaints look like, how a specific judge's cases tend to be litigated, or what arguments opposing counsel typically makes.

This article walks you through how to search those documents — from navigating to the right tab, to building your query, to putting what you find to work.

Getting Started: Navigating to the Documents Tab

Smart Search is the starting point for all document searches on Trellis. Here's how to get there:

1. Go to trellis.law/search and enter your search terms into the Smart Search bar.
2. Use the dropdown to the right of the search bar to select one or more states you want to search across.
3. On the results page, click the Documents tab.

The Documents tab surfaces filed court documents — motions, complaints, briefs, orders, and more — that match your search. This is separate from the other result tabs (Rulings, Dockets, and Verdicts), which surface different record types. If you're not sure which tab to use, Documents is the right place to start when you're looking for actual filed filings.

🌎 Not all counties have documents available yet. Check the Coverage page to see which states and counties currently have documents on Trellis — we add new data and jurisdictions daily.

Related articles:

• How to Search for Documents on Smart Search
• What Is the "Documents" Tab on the Smart Search Results Page?
• How Do I Use Smart Search, Generally?

Building Your Search Query

There are two ways to search for documents on Trellis. You can use whichever feels most natural, and you can combine both approaches as you get more comfortable with the platform.

Option A: Natural Language Search

If you know what you're looking for but aren't sure how to phrase it as a keyword search, just describe it in plain language. Trellis will interpret your intent and surface relevant documents without requiring any special syntax.

Some examples of natural language queries that work well:

• "motion to compel discovery in a slip and fall case in California"
• "breach of contract complaint against a general contractor"
• "summary judgment motion in an employment discrimination case in New York"
• "demurrer filed in a personal injury case in Los Angeles"

Natural language search is a good starting point when you're exploring a topic broadly, researching an unfamiliar area of law, or just getting oriented on a new case. You can always refine from there.

Option B: Keyword and Boolean Search

For more targeted results, Trellis supports keyword searches combined with Boolean operators — special terms and symbols that tell the search engine exactly how to interpret your query. This approach gives you precise control over what appears in your results.

Below are the most useful search methods for finding documents, with examples for each.

Searching by legal issue or motion type

Enter the legal issue, claim type, or motion type as a keyword or phrase. Use quotation marks for exact phrases.

• "motion to dismiss" — returns documents containing that exact phrase
• "breach of fiduciary duty" — returns documents about that specific claim
• "motion to compel" AND discovery — returns documents where both terms appear

Searching by case number
Always wrap a case number in quotation marks. This is the most reliable way to find documents tied to a specific matter.

• "23CV001234"

Searching by party name
Use party:"party-name" to find documents where a specific individual, company, or attorney appears as a party or attorney of record. For parties who may be involved in a case but not formally listed, search the name in quotation marks instead.

• party:"Acme Corporation" — documents where Acme Corporation is a party of record
• "Acme Corporation" — broader search that may surface additional results

For a deeper look at how party searches can drive case strategy — including how to analyze a repeat litigant's scope, volume, and filing cadence — see the Trellis blog: Repeat Litigants: How Party Patterns Change Case Strategy.

 

Searching by judge
Use judge:lastname to find documents associated with a specific judge. You can also search the judge's full name in quotation marks. Make sure to select the correct state.

• judge:smith AND "motion to dismiss" — documents in cases before Judge Smith involving a motion to dismiss
• "Judge Sarah Johnson" — alternative approach using the full name

Searching by attorney or law firm
Use party:"attorney name" for attorneys who have formally appeared in a case. For broader results — including filings where an attorney or firm is mentioned but not listed as counsel of record — search the name in quotation marks.

• party:"Jane Doe" — documents where Jane Doe appears as counsel of record
• "Morrison Foerster" — documents mentioning the firm anywhere in the text

Searching by county
Use county:countyname to limit results to a specific county. Do not include spaces, even if the county name has multiple words.

• county:losangeles
• county:cookcounty

Combining search types
These methods can be combined to get highly targeted results:

• judge:martinez AND "summary judgment" AND "employment discrimination" — summary judgment motions before Judge Martinez in employment discrimination cases
• party:"State Farm" AND "bad faith" AND county:orange — bad faith insurance documents involving State Farm in Orange County

🔎 Boolean operators are case-sensitive. AND, OR, and AND NOT must be capitalized. For a full reference including wildcards (negligen*), proximity connectors, and more, see Using Boolean Operators in Smart Search.

Filtering and Narrowing Results

Once your search returns results, you can use filters to zero in on exactly what you need.

Selecting states
Use the state dropdown to the right of the search bar to search across one state or multiple states at once. When a state is selected, you're searching across all state trial courts Trellis covers in that jurisdiction.

Narrowing by date
Filter results by date range to focus on more recent filings or to look at how a legal issue was handled during a specific time period.

Narrowing by document type
Filter by document type to surface only the kind of filing you're looking for — for example, complaints, motions, or orders — rather than sorting through all document types at once.

Narrowing by county
You can filter by county using the search filters, or use the county:countyname operator directly in your query (covered in the previous section).

If your results are too broad:

• Add a keyword, motion type, or legal issue to tighten the query
• Add a party name or judge name to scope results to a specific matter or courtroom
• Use quotation marks around a phrase to require an exact match rather than individual keywords
• Use AND to require multiple terms to appear together

If your results are too narrow:

• Remove a filter and see if results expand
• Try a synonym or related term — for example, if "negligent misrepresentation" returns few results, try misrepresentation without the qualifier
• Use a wildcard to capture variations: negligen* will return documents containing negligence, negligent, and negligently
• Try natural language instead of a structured keyword query

🔎 Not finding what you need? It's possible the county isn't yet in Trellis coverage, or the document hasn't been fetched yet. Check the Coverage page or see Requesting a Docket That Isn't on Trellis for next steps.

Search Strategies by Use Case

The real power of document search on Trellis is what you can do with it strategically. Here are the most common ways attorneys use document search to build an advantage — with examples drawn from real workflows.

Finding similar motions or briefs

When you're drafting a motion, one of the most valuable things you can do is see how similar motions have been argued in practice — what arguments were made, how they were framed, and in what context they succeeded or failed.

Search by motion type combined with a legal issue and state to surface relevant examples:

• "motion to compel" AND "trade secret" AND county:losangeles
• "motion in limine" AND "expert witness" AND negligence
• "demurrer" AND "breach of contract" AND "economic loss rule"

From there, you can review the actual filed documents, identify the arguments that appear most frequently, and use Document Chat to extract key points quickly without reading every filing end to end.

Researching how a judge's cases are litigated

Knowing how a judge tends to manage their docket — and how attorneys argue in front of them — can shape everything from how you frame a motion to how you prioritize discovery.

Search by judge name combined with a motion type or legal issue to see the documents filed in their courtroom:

• judge:martinez AND "motion for summary judgment"
• judge:chen AND "motion to compel" AND employment

Look at what arguments appear repeatedly, how motions are structured, and what kinds of supporting documents are typically filed. This gives you a ground-level view of what works in that courtroom.

🔎 For analytics on how a specific judge rules on motions — win rates, timing, tendencies — see How to Access Judge Analytics on Trellis and Researching Your Judge on Smart Search.

Analyzing opposing counsel's filing patterns

Understanding how opposing counsel approaches litigation — the motions they favor, the arguments they make, how they handle discovery — gives you a meaningful head start before the first filing.

Search by attorney name or firm to surface documents they've filed across cases:

• party:"Jane Doe" AND "motion to compel"
• "Morrison Foerster" AND "summary judgment" AND employment

As the Trellis blog describes in The First 15 Minutes: Why Early Case Research Changes Everything, running this kind of search immediately after a case is filed can reveal whether opposing counsel files dense, detail-oriented complaints across multiple causes of action, moves aggressively on discovery early, or follows a more templated approach across a high volume of cases. Each of those patterns points to a different preparation strategy.

🔎 For a full AI-generated breakdown of an attorney's litigation history, motion behavior, and case outcomes, see How to Generate an Attorney Analysis Report.
🔎 For tips on finding attorneys and firms in Smart Search, see Researching Law Firms and/or Opposing Counsel on Smart Search.

Researching a company's litigation history

When a company is a party in your case — or you're evaluating litigation risk for a corporate client — searching their name across documents gives you a picture of how they litigate: what claims are brought against them, how they respond, and whether they're a one-off defendant or a repeat player with predictable patterns.

Search the company name as a party to surface documents across their full litigation footprint:

• party:"Acme Corporation"
• party:"State Farm" AND "bad faith"

As the Trellis blog explains in Repeat Litigants: How Party Patterns Change Case Strategy, a single party search can reveal scope (how broad their litigation footprint is), volume (how frequently they file or get sued), and cadence (whether filings come in isolated disputes or coordinated waves). Each of those dimensions informs how you approach the case.

🔎 For a full corporate litigation profile including trends, jurisdictions, and outcomes, see Researching Parties or Corporations on Smart Search.

Finding a specific case or filing

If you know the case number, wrap it in quotation marks and search directly:

• "23CV001234"

You can also search by party name combined with a state or county to locate a specific matter when you don't have the case number handy:

• party:"Acme Corporation" AND county:orange

From the results, navigate to the Docket page for that case to see all filings in one place.

Working with Documents Once You Find Them

Once you've located the documents you need, Trellis gives you several ways to access, review, and work with them.

Viewing and accessing documents

There are four main ways to access documents on Trellis, depending on the document and your subscription:

• Documents tab results — Every document surfaced through a Smart Search Documents tab search is included in your subscription and free to access.
• "View Document" / "View Tentative Ruling" buttons — When browsing a case docket, clicking these buttons displays the document immediately at no additional cost.
• "Get Document" buttons — For documents that need to be fetched from the county court website, Trellis retrieves and emails them to you. Los Angeles Superior Court and Cook County (IL) documents are covered under your subscription (limits vary by tier). Documents from other counties are available for purchase directly on the site.
• Document thumbnails — Listed under the "Case Documents" heading on a docket page, these function the same as the buttons above depending on the document type.

🔎 For a full breakdown of what's included in your subscription vs. what requires purchase, see Overview of Documents Accessible and Obtainable on Trellis.

Using Document Chat

Once you've opened a document, Document Chat lets you interact with it directly — without reading it line by line. You can ask questions, request a summary, or pull out specific information.

Some ways to use it:

• "Summarize this motion and identify the main arguments"
• "What claims are alleged in this complaint?"
• "What is the plaintiff's theory of liability?"
• "Are there any deadlines or hearing dates mentioned in this filing?"

This is especially useful when you're moving quickly on a new case. As the Trellis blog describes in The First 15 Minutes: Why Early Case Research Changes Everything, pulling up a complaint and using Chat to extract what matters — the parties, the claim, the exposure — can get you to a working understanding of the case in minutes rather than hours.

🔎 For a full walkthrough of Document Chat features, see Trellis Document Chat.

Stay Current: Using Alerts to Track Ongoing Activity

Document search is most powerful when combined with Trellis Alerts, which notify you by email when new activity matching your criteria appears — so you don't have to keep re-running the same searches manually.

Alert types relevant to document research:

• Track updates on a specific case docket — Get notified whenever a case you're monitoring is updated, so you know when new documents are filed in that matter. You can set this alert directly from any Ruling, Docket, or Document page using the "Track Case Changes" button.
• Track new cases involving a specific party or corporation — Be alerted when a company or individual you're watching appears in a newly filed case docket. As the Trellis blog describes in The First 15 Minutes: Why Early Case Research Changes Everything, a well-configured party alert can surface a new lawsuit against your client days before formal assignment — giving you a head start on research and strategy before anyone else has had a chance to assess the case.
• Track new cases involving an attorney or firm — Stay current on what opposing counsel is filing across their full caseload, not just in your matter.
• Track new cases involving a specific judge — Monitor new filings in your judge's courtroom to see how similar cases are being handled in real time.
• Track new CA tentative rulings by keyword — Set an alert on a legal issue, statute, or keyphrase to be notified when California courts issue tentative rulings mentioning it.

🔎 For full setup instructions and all alert types, see What Are Alerts and What Types of Alerts May I Set?
🔎 To add colleagues to an alert or remove yourself from notifications, see Adding Alert Recipients and Excluding Yourself from Notifications.

Coverage & Troubleshooting

If a document doesn't appear in your search results

There are a few common reasons a document might not show up:

• The county may not yet be in Trellis coverage. Trellis adds new states, counties, and jurisdictions continuously, but not every county has documents available yet. Check the Coverage page to see what's currently available.
• The document may not have been fetched yet. Some documents need to be retrieved from the county court website before they appear in Trellis. If you find the case docket but don't see the document you need, use the "Get Document" button to request it.
• The case may be very recently filed. New filings can take some time to appear in Trellis after being entered at the court.
• Your search terms may be too narrow. Try broadening your query — remove a keyword, try a synonym, or switch from a structured Boolean search to a natural language query.

If you can't find a docket at all

If the case docket itself isn't on Trellis, you can request it. Trellis uses these requests to prioritize new data acquisition.

🔎 See Requesting a Docket That Isn't on Trellis for instructions.
🔎 If a docket is already on Trellis but needs to be updated with recent activity, see Updating a Docket That's Already on Trellis.

If you need additional help

Trellis offers research support for questions about how to find specific types of cases, documents, or data.

🔎 See How Do I Get Help with Research Questions? to reach the research support team.
🔎 For general support, see How Do I Contact Customer Support?