Are there any court filings or exhibits in Towles's case available on PACER or local court websites?

1. What exists in the public record right now

Nationally, federal dockets that use the name “Towles” appear in public-facing aggregators: Justia hosts a docket summary for Towles v. Commissioner (Social Security) and explicitly notes PACER as the original source ^[1]. Local news reporting about the Hartland, Maine dispute describes allegations “in court filings” and refers to “court records” from Somerset County Superior Court, indicating filings exist in the state-court record, but the articles don’t link to an online docket or to an accessible county site copy in the items we found ^{[4] [5]}.

2. How to look for federal Towles cases on PACER

PACER is the U.S. federal courts’ portal for docket sheets and many documents; the PACER Case Locator can find the district or court and returns party name, court, case number, and dates — then you can pull docket entries/documents from that court’s CM/ECF ^{[2] [6]}. PACER charges per-page fees (typically $0.10/page, max $3.00/document) and requires a registered account ^{[2] [7]}.

3. Free or lower-cost alternatives and archives

The RECAP archive at CourtListener stores millions of PACER documents contributed by users and can be searched without PACER fees; CourtListener’s RECAP search is explicitly recommended as a way to retrieve PACER-sourced documents that others have uploaded ^[3]. Law libraries, institutional subscriptions, and guides (e.g., university law library guides) also outline PACER-free pathways or cost-saving strategies ^{[8] [9]}.

4. Limits: state court records and sealed materials

PACER covers federal courts; state and county courts maintain separate systems. The Maine Somerset County Superior Court filings referenced in press coverage are state-court records, which typically appear on local court websites or county clerk portals — the articles cite “court records” but don’t point to a public online copy in our sample, so whether those exhibits are posted online is unknown from these sources ^{[4] [5]}. Also, sealed documents are not available through PACER (the PACER help pages state sealed documents cannot be found by the public) ^[10].

5. Practical next steps to find Towles-related filings

• For federal suits: use the PACER Case Locator to search by party name; once you have a case number, retrieve docket sheets and then documents ^{[6] [7]}. Expect per-page fees unless you find the document in RECAP ^{[3] [2]}.
• For the Hartland, Maine matter: contact the Somerset County Superior Court clerk or check the Maine Judicial Branch site for civil dockets; the news coverage identifies plaintiffs (Karen and James Towle, Dana and Patricia Jandreau) and the general claims, which will help narrow a local docket search ^{[4] [5]}. The articles state the suit was filed in Somerset County Superior Court a few weeks after June 2023 town meeting actions ^[4].

6. What reporters and sources disagree about or omit

Local reporting frames the Hartland dispute around “court filings” and “court records” but does not publish the filings or exhibits themselves in the items cited here, leaving a gap between reportage and primary documents in the public links we reviewed ^{[4] [5]}. Justia’s federal docket points readers back to PACER for the underlying filings; that’s consistent with PACER being the canonical place for federal court documents but also highlights the paywall/fragmentation problem for the public ^{[1] [2]}.

Limitations: available sources do not mention whether the Somerset County filings or their exhibits are posted on the county’s website, and they do not provide direct PACER links or document numbers for the Maine suit; they only indicate filings exist and were cited by journalists ^{[4] [5]}.