In answer to whether a slave filed a lawsuit in a particular jurisdiction, one first must know WHERE and WHEN the alleged lawsuit took place. The key to finding out about this lawsuit is the Jurisdiction--that is, what county or State. Probably the fastest way to find out is to start one's research with the Family History Library Catalog on _www.familysearch.org_ (http://www.familysearch.org) Do a PLACE search. If you do not know the exact place, let's hope you at least have the State where the action took place. When you get the place, then look for the topic *Court records*. Each jurisdiction had its own system of courts. In some places, particularly Kentucky, the county court records are kept in Court Order Books. In Virginia, I believe they are called Order Books. But the action may have taken place at a higher court than a county court. Searching court records is going to be difficult, unless one is fortunate enough to have found that some dedicated genealogist-author has abstracted the court records. But there are also Courts of 'Appeal, etc. If the questioner is near an LDS Family History Center, I strongly suggest he/she obtain from that center a Research Outline for that particular State. There probably will be an explanation of what courts existed for that State. A reference book such as the several editions of The Source [perhaps a copy is at the Reference Desk of your public library--ask the reference librarian] may explain the various courts. For example, after the county courts will be District courts and so on--up the line. (One has to learn about the system in the courts at the time of the lawsuit.) If the questioner has greater details, a reference librarian at a Law Library [nearly every county has one such library] may be able to give some guidance. I wish the questioner some luck!!! Genealogy requires us to know a lot of details 1) Who 2) When and 3) Where and if possible 4) How and 5) Why??? We all have to learn to be detectives. The internet is NOT going to answer all the questions genealogists have!!! E.W,Wallace **************Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music. (http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?NCID=aolcmp003000000025 48)