Researching a Company's Legal Proceedings: Legal Action and Litigation

• News
• Court Documents
• Class Action Securities Fraud Cases
• Competition and Consumer Protection Cases

Factiva

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Factiva has a good interface for searching for articles about a company that are related to a specific topic such as legal action.  To locate articles about legal action related to a company:

1. Open Factiva.  Click on the Companies/Markets link in the main menu.
2. Under Get Company Snapshot, enter the name of the company you're interested in.  Select the company from the options that appear or click Go and select it from the list of results.
3. In the Discovery Pane, under Subjects, there should be an option labeled Corporate Crime/Legal Action.  Clicking on Corporate Crime/Legal Action will allow you to view relevant articles.

If "Corporate Crime/Legal Action" is not an option in the Discovery Pane:

1. Go back to the default search page by clicking on Search in the main menu.
2. Expand the Company field.  Start to enter the name of the company you're researching and select it from the list that appears.
3. Expand the Subject field.  Start to type Corporate Crime/Legal Action and select it when it appears.
4. Click Search.
5. The options on the left side of the screen - including Date, Sources, and Keywords can help you further refine your search.

LexisNexis Academic

LexisNexis Academic contains a different set of news sources than Factiva and is useful for gaining additional insight.  To find articles on legal action involving a company:

1. Open LexisNexis Academic. Click on Search by Subject or Topic, then click on Dossier(Company, Executive, and Industry) under Companies.
2. Search for the company you're researching.
3. Once on the company's profile page, click on In the News.
4. To look at articles on legal issues, click on Topic and then Legal.

Bloomberg

Per the reference librarians at the UVA Law Library, Bloomberg Law is the preferred source for finding dockets from various types of legal proceedings as it pulls directly from the US Court's Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) service.  We have limited access to Bloomberg Law through our Bloomberg terminals in the Capital Markets room.

To find dockets using Bloomberg Law:

1. Log into Bloomberg using the log in information next to the Bloomberg terminals.
2. Once in Bloomberg, open the Related Functions Menu.  Under Professional Applications, select 22) Bloomberg Law.
3. Under Litigation & Dockets, select 3) Company Litigation.
4. Select 20) Company Litigation Search.
5. Click on the equity listed in the Company Legal Search field and enter the name or ticker symbol of the company you're researching.  Select the appropriate equity.
6. Select the case you want to look at dockets for.
7. You will be presented with a document with key information about the case.  Scroll down to Docket Entries to view the dockets in the case.
8. Under Action, each docket will either have View or Request.  If it says View, you will be able to view the full text of the docket in PDF form.  You will also be able to print or save the docket.
9. If the docket is only available to request, you will not be able to view the docket through Bloomberg.  See below for additional options.

You can also search for dockets or cases using the Docket Search option:

1. From the Bloomberg Law Litigation & Dockets menu, select 5) DCSH Docket Search.
2. Under Advanced Docket Search Options, select the appropriate role and search for the company or use the additional search options.
3. Click on 1) Search.

Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER)

PACER is a service provided by the US Court system to allow public access to court records.  Anyone is able to make an account and search for and view dockets, though there are small fees associated with using the service.  More information about the service can be found in the PACER Frequently Asked Questions.

Before using PACER, however, check if the case you're interested in is covered by one of the sources below.

Securities Class Action Clearinghouse (Stanford Law School)

The Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse provides information about ongoing and past securities fraud class action lawsuits as well as data on the overall landscape of securities class action lawsuits.

For each case, the SCAC provides, at minimum, a summary of the case and the original complaint that was filed.  It may also include any orders issued in the case, a docket that lists the documents filed in relation to the case, and other documents.  As with Bloomberg, even if you can't get the document(s) you need through SCAC, it is still an excellent resource to identify what documents you may need to pull from PACER.

The US Federal Trade Commission's website has a page in its Enforcement section that lists current and past FTC cases and proceedings.  These cases are related to consumer protection or competition (including mergers and acquisitions involving anti-competitive practices).  The complaint, orders issued by the court, and some press releases are available for each case.

You can search for a case by using the Filters form on the Cases and Proceedings page.  All cases can be searched for by name and date and many can be searched for by mission (consumer protection or competition).  Clicking on Advanced Search allows you to search using additional parameters such as industry or specific topics within consumer protection or competition.

In many cases, it may be helpful to contact the Law Library for more in-depth legal research guidance.

Contact Law Library reference

refdesk@law.virginia.edu
(434) 924-7465

The Darden reference librarians are also willing to contact the Law Library on your behalf.