Start by naming the jurisdiction and the decision-maker you care about; that single choice narrows the chaos into something searchable. For federal courts in the U.S., 'PACER' holds everything official (dockets, filings), but I usually look on 'CourtListener' or 'RECAP' first to avoid fees. 'Google Scholar' is underrated for case law — you can search by citation, party names, or keywords and it’s surprisingly comprehensive for many courts.
If you’re focused on regulatory matters, agency sites are direct and often overlooked. The SEC, FTC, FCC, EPA, and others publish administrative decisions, sanctions, and interpretive letters. Use the Federal Register for rulemaking context and 'Regulations.gov' to track comments and notices. State regulators and administrative law judges often post decisions on their own portals, so a targeted Google site: search (e.g., site:stateagency.gov "decision") can find what big aggregators miss.
When paywalls block you, check law school repositories, SSRN for working papers, and public or
university library access to Lexis/Westlaw. Tools like 'Justia' and 'FindLaw' aggregate opinions and summaries, and for international materials try 'BAILII', 'CanLII', or 'EUR-Lex'. Pro tip: use exact citation searches and follow cited cases backward and forward — that network often leads to the primary document. It
took me a few research rabbit
Holes to learn these shortcuts, but now I get to the original sources faster, which feels great.