CourtLink Pricing and LexisNexis CourtLink Cost per Docket, Alert and Month
LexisNexis prices CourtLink two ways, and both are published if you know where to look: a monthly add-on in its online store, and a per-use fee schedule for every track, document and alert. Here are both, set against PACER and the cheaper trackers small firms actually use.
In short
CourtLink costs a small firm 294 to 392 dollars a month per attorney as the Everything CourtLink add-on in the LexisNexis online store (3 year or 1 year term), and it is only sold there on top of a Lexis+ plan. Lexis+ Professional, at 324 to 432 a month, lists CourtLink in the plan itself. Outside a subscription, LexisNexis publishes per-use prices: 11 dollars per docket track run, 7 dollars per court document in most courts (21 for Los Angeles Superior, 61 for Delaware Chancery) and 11 dollars per litigant, attorney or judge alert. For comparison, PACER charges 10 cents a page, rising to 12 cents on 1 January 2027. Cases is not a docket tool: it searches published US case law for 29 dollars a month. This is informational research, not legal advice.
How we checked this. The per-use prices come from section 1.7 of LexisNexis' Small Legal price schedule, which we read live on 29 September 2026. The same figures appear in its Small Firm Transactional schedule. The monthly add-on and plan prices come from the LexisNexis store for firms of 1 to 3 attorneys, which blocks automated reads, so we used the Internet Archive capture of 5 September 2026, identical to April 2026. PACER, PacerMonitor and DocketBird prices were read from each vendor's own pricing page the same day. Totals and examples are our arithmetic, not quotes.
LexisNexis online store, one attorney
Three ways to buy CourtLink by the month
Dollars per month for one attorney, new customers only. The store sells to firms of 1 to 3 attorneys and sends bigger firms to sales. The finding worth money is in the last two rows.
| Route | 1 year term | 3 year term | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Everything CourtLink add-on | 392 | 294 | Sold on top of a Lexis+ plan, never alone on the store |
| Lexis+ Essential plus the add-on | 544 | 408 | Our sum: Essential 152 or 114, plus 392 or 294 |
| Lexis+ Professional | 432 | 324 | The store lists CourtLink in the plan, with 50-state case law and Law360 |
The add-on costs more than the upgrade
On a 3 year term, Essential plus Everything CourtLink comes to 408 a month. Professional is 324 and adds 50-state case law and Law360 as well. Ask the rep which CourtLink features each route includes before you pick the dearer one.
The 2 year term sits between
The store prices the add-on at 353 a month on a 2 year term, in line with its 10 percent two year discount across Lexis+. The 3 year term takes 25 percent off.
Per attorney, not per firm
The figures are for one attorney. A three lawyer firm pays for three seats, and the store stops at three. Beyond that CourtLink is quoted, which is where most corporate legal departments buy it.
LexisNexis Small Legal price schedule, section 1.7
CourtLink cost per track, document and alert
These are the list prices LexisNexis bills when CourtLink is used outside a flat rate subscription that covers it. The schedule says they do not reflect any discounts, and LexisNexis can change them on 30 days' notice.
Tracking is where the bill grows. The schedule charges per track run, so frequency multiplies everything. One case tracked weekly is about 4.3 runs a month, roughly 48 dollars at list. Twenty cases tracked every business day would be around 440 runs, close to 4,800 dollars a month at list, which is why nobody with a real caseload pays for tracking this way.
| Item | Published list price |
|---|---|
| Docket tracking | 11 dollars per track run |
| Court documents, most courts | 7 dollars per document |
| Court documents, California, Los Angeles Superior | 21 dollars per document |
| Court documents, Delaware Chancery | 61 dollars per document |
| Runner retrieval (Enable Runner Access) | Priced from court |
| Docket Update Now | 7 dollars per update |
| Attorney, law firm, litigant, judge or criminal defendant alert | 11 dollars per alert |
| Bankruptcy creditor or debtor alert | 11 dollars per alert |
| Bankruptcy Chapter 7 alert | 0.50 dollars per alert |
| Bankruptcy Chapter 9, 11, 12, 13 and 15 alert | 5 dollars per alert |
| New event alert | 5 dollars per alert |
| Class action or nature of suit alert | 3 dollars per alert |
| Patent number alert | 59 dollars per alert |
| Administration charge, 1 to 5 attorney firms | 25 dollars per month |
Every price read from the vendor's own page
CourtLink vs PACER, PacerMonitor and DocketBird on price
PACER is the source for federal filings, and every federal tracker in this table sits on top of it. CourtLink adds state courts; Cases is not a tracker at all. What you pay the tracker for is search, alerts and not having to check dockets by hand.
| Tool | Price | Documents | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| LexisNexis CourtLink | 294 to 392 a month add-on, or per use (11 per track run, 7 per document) | Per document, 7 to 61 dollars outside a plan | Firms already on Lexis+ that need federal and state dockets plus alerts on litigants and judges |
| PACER | No subscription. 0.10 per page, 3 dollar cap per document | Opinions free. Fees waived under 30 dollars a quarter | Occasional federal lookups by a firm that knows the case number |
| PacerMonitor | Plus 49, Professional 99 per user per month; Enterprise 499 for 15 users | 15 cents a page on Plus, 10 cents on Professional | Federal only work that wants alerts without a Lexis contract |
| DocketBird | From 35 per user per month billed annually (420 a year), 20 active cases included | PACER fees passed through at cost | Small litigation teams tracking their own federal cases |
| Cases (us) | 29 a month, month to month | Not a docket tool. Searches published US case law | Finding the decisions that decide the motion once the docket tells you it was filed |
Where CourtLink wins
State courts in the same search as federal, alerts on a litigant, judge, law firm or nature of suit, and runner retrieval when a document is not online. A firm that watches for new suits against its clients across jurisdictions is the buyer it is priced for.
Where the small trackers win
Following your own federal cases. DocketBird includes 20 active cases per user from 35 dollars a month billed annually, and PacerMonitor Professional is 99 a month with 20 custom alerts. Both pass PACER charges through, so they are cheaper than CourtLink's 7 dollar document fee on most filings.
If you are weighing one of the smaller trackers, our DocketBird vs PacerMonitor pricing comparison works through the plans at 5, 20 and 60 active cases. For state trial court dockets with analytics, Trellis is the other name that comes up.
Announced by the federal judiciary, 26 June 2026
PACER goes to 12 cents a page in January 2027
A 20 percent rise per page
From 1 January 2027 the per-page fee goes from 10 to 12 cents, for five years, to fund the judiciary's new case management and public access system.
The waiver rises too
Quarterly charges of 40 dollars or less will be waived, up from 30. The 3 dollar cap per document stays, and court opinions stay free.
Pass-through trackers follow
DocketBird and PacerMonitor Professional pass PACER fees through, so their document cost moves with PACER. CourtLink's 7 dollar list fee is set by LexisNexis, not by the page count.
The one thing the increase does not touch: written opinions stay free on PACER, and published opinions are what a brief cites. If what you pull from PACER is mostly opinions, you are paying for the wrong half of the service. Our federal case law search finds those decisions by the question you are asking rather than by case number.
Honest fit, including when to skip it
Who should pay for CourtLink
| Practice | Verdict | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Two lawyer federal litigation shop tracking its own 20 cases | Skip CourtLink | A per-case tracker at 35 to 40 dollars a user covers 20 active cases and passes PACER fees through at cost. CourtLink is priced for breadth you will not use. |
| Firm already paying for Lexis+ Essential that needs dockets | Price Professional first | On a 3 year term, Essential plus the Everything CourtLink add-on is 408 a month. Professional, which lists CourtLink in its contents, is 324. |
| Plaintiff or defense firm that monitors new suits against a client | CourtLink or PacerMonitor | Litigant and new-filing alerts are the product here. At 11 dollars per alert outside a plan, a flat subscription pays for itself quickly. |
| State court practice in one or two counties | Check the county first | Coverage of state trial dockets varies by court on every service, and some state documents cost 21 or 61 dollars each. Many counties run their own portal. |
| Bankruptcy practice watching Chapter 11 filings | Either works | CourtLink lists a 5 dollar Chapter 11 alert. PacerMonitor includes Chapter 11 petitions and dockets on its plans. |
| Firm that mainly wants the law, not the filings | Not a docket purchase | Dockets tell you what was filed. The authority a motion turns on is in published opinions, and a case law search tool is the cheaper way to find those. |
A quick test before any docket contract: list the dockets you checked by hand last month and how often. Under ten cases checked weekly, PACER plus a calendar reminder is cheaper than any subscription. Ten to sixty of your own federal cases, a per-case tracker. Monitoring parties, judges or new suits across state and federal courts, CourtLink or an enterprise tracker. The full Lexis+ plan matrix CourtLink sits on is on our LexisNexis solo practitioner pricing page.
Two purchases that get bundled
A docket shows what was filed, not what the law is
LexisNexis sells dockets and case law in one bundle, so it is easy to forget they answer different questions. CourtLink tells you that opposing counsel filed a motion to dismiss on Tuesday. It does not tell you how courts in your circuit have ruled on that argument, and that second question is where most of the billable work goes.
That is the part Cases does. Ask the question in plain English, read the US federal and state decisions that answer it, and open every citation. We are not a docket tracker and we have no citator, so pair us with whichever tracker the table above points you to, and run your citations through a citator before you file. Many firms find that a cheap tracker plus focused case law search costs less than one Lexis+ Professional seat. Our legal research pricing overview puts every research seat side by side if you want to price that split properly.
Questions litigators ask
CourtLink pricing questions
How much does CourtLink cost?
CourtLink costs a small firm 294 to 392 dollars a month per attorney as the Everything CourtLink add-on in the LexisNexis online store, on a 3 year or 1 year term. Used outside a subscription, LexisNexis publishes per-use prices instead: 11 dollars per docket track run, 7 dollars per court document in most courts, and 11 dollars per litigant or judge alert.
Is CourtLink included in Lexis+?
It depends on the plan. The LexisNexis store lists CourtLink in Lexis+ Professional, together with 50-state case law and Law360. Essential and Enhanced do not include it, so a firm on those plans either buys the Everything CourtLink add-on or pays the per-use docket prices in the Small Legal price schedule.
How much does it cost to track a docket on CourtLink?
LexisNexis lists 11 dollars per track run for docket tracking outside a flat rate plan, plus 7 dollars for each Docket Update Now. The number that matters is how often your tracks run. A weekly track on one case is about 48 dollars a month at list price; a daily track on twenty cases would run into the thousands, which is why heavy users buy a flat plan.
Does CourtLink charge per document?
Yes, outside a subscription that covers it. The price schedule lists 7 dollars per court document in most courts, 21 dollars for Los Angeles Superior Court and 61 dollars for Delaware Chancery. Documents fetched by a courthouse runner are priced by the court. These are list prices that LexisNexis says do not reflect any discounts.
Is CourtLink cheaper than PACER?
No, not for occasional use. PACER charges 10 cents a page with a 3 dollar cap per document, waives fees under 30 dollars a quarter and makes opinions free. CourtLink costs more per document but adds state courts, one search across courts and alerts on parties and judges. Firms pay for it for monitoring, not for single lookups.
Is PACER going up in price?
Yes. The federal judiciary announced a temporary increase from 10 to 12 cents per page effective 1 January 2027, for five years. The quarterly amount below which fees are waived rises from 30 to 40 dollars. The 3 dollar cap per document stays. Every PACER based tracker that passes fees through will pass this on.
What is the cheapest way to track federal dockets for a small firm?
For a firm tracking its own cases, a per-case tracker is usually cheapest. DocketBird starts at 35 dollars per user per month billed annually with 20 active cases, and PacerMonitor Plus is 49 a month, both plus PACER charges. CourtLink makes sense once you need state courts, cross-court searching or alerts on new suits.
Can I buy CourtLink without Lexis+?
Not in the LexisNexis online store, which sells Everything CourtLink only as an add-on to a Lexis+ plan for firms of 1 to 3 attorneys. Larger firms and companies buy CourtLink through a LexisNexis account executive, where pricing is quoted rather than published.
Keep comparing
Related pricing pages for litigators
The docket says a motion was filed. Find the law that decides it.
Ask a legal question in plain English and read the US federal and state decisions it returns, with citations you can open. 29 dollars a month, month to month, no sales call.