Q:A former neighbor was recently convicted of a spectacular crime in Federal court. And while I am at least as nosy as the next gal, I [a Chicagoan] might want to write about the case some day. But I've never been to J-school, so I don't know the first thing about investigative reporting. How would I go about getting a copy of the trial transcripts?

A:I asked my friend Tom Zoellner, reporter and instructor of the Investigative Journalism: Finding the Holy Sh*t Story course:

"This one's easy. You can go about it one of three ways:

1) Physically go down to fed court at the Everett McKinley Dirksen Building at 219 South Dearborn and go into the "Clerk of Courts" office. There she can give one of the staffers the name of the neighbor and ask to see all the case filings. There may be transcripts, there may not be. Occassionally, the case file is with a particular judge, in which case she can then ask the judge's secretary if the file is being used. If not, she may be able to sit
there in the judge's office and read it right there.

2) It might also be online at the Northern Illinois U.S. District Court website.

But she's likely only to find a docket here and not the juicy stuff. Good for finding a case number, if nothing else.

3) Go to the fed courts database. It will go easier if she has the person's full name. A case number helps even more here.

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