MATERIAL LITIGATION Disclosed by Public Corporations

Search SEC filings -Quarterly and Annual Filings (10Qs or 10K for U.S. based publicly-traded companies.

Search Bloomberg, available in the Wasserman Trading Floor of the Subotnick Center. Information may be found by searching Company Legal News, BBLS Legal Documents Search; Litigation and Dockets. 

CASES IN PROGRESS

Justia federal court filings; Stanford Class Action Reporter; State court websites; Pacer dockets (not available at Newman Library).

On Bloomberg, Search Litigation and Dockets for a specific company.

DECIDED CASES 

Lexis Academic; Westlaw ; Google Scholar

Q. How can I find out if a company has been sued? 

A.  It may not be possible to find all lawsuits filed against a company. There is no one comprehensive database of lawsuits. Also, in some U.S. states, including New York, a lawsuit may begin by serving the company with a complaint, and not with a court filing. Often, the company and the complaining party may then reach a private settlement of the issue(s) without going into court. Also, sometimes boards such as the Workers Compensation Board of the State of New York have databases of decisions that are not easily searched by name because of confidentiality requirements.

but you may find some results as follows:

• Run a Company Dossier search on Lexis Academic (under "Get Companies Info"). Go to the "legal" section of the Snapshot report for recent federal cases involving the company. (Some non-U.S. cases are available.)
• Run a company search on Audit Analytics; see "litigation" section.
• On Lexis & Westlaw, search for the company as part of the case name; you will need to look for cases in which the company is the defendant  (the defendant is listed last).  You must search federal and state cases, and you will only find cases that have been decided.
• Search the company name in Justia, which links to all federal district court filings (includes pending cases). 
• Search the company name as part of the title in Google Scholar court cases (e.g.: in title:microsoft defendant)
• See if your company is listed on the Stanford University Securities Class Action Clearinghouse website
• Search the company name on government websites, such the SEC, the Dept. of Justice, the Department of Labor, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission and the FTC.
• Search news on Lexis, Factiva, and Google, as well as legal newsletters on our library databases.  Formulate a search by combining the company name with "lawsuit or suit or sued or action or court or investigation".  
• If the company is public, check SEC filings to see if any lawsuits have been disclosed. The quarterly and annual filings will have a section on legal proceedings. The 8k filings of current events (for U.S. companies) will disclose major litigation.
• Try the state court where the company is located.  Many state courts, such as Missouri, offer a public docket search for pending cases.  Note:  it may be very difficult to find cases that have been settled out of court.  Local media are the best source for that type of information.