CourtListener Legal Search Scraper

Search US court opinions, court dockets, and browse available courts from CourtListener.com — the Free Law Project's open database of 4M+ court opinions from SCOTUS down to federal district courts. No API key or account required.

What You Can Scrape

• Court Opinions — case names, courts, filing dates, docket numbers, opinion types, citation counts, and status (Published/Unpublished)
• Court Dockets — case filings, assigned judges, causes of action, and docket numbers
• Courts List — all available courts with jurisdiction types, short names, and official website URLs

Modes

Mode	Description
searchOpinions	Search US court opinions / case law via REST API (default)
searchDockets	Search federal court dockets via REST API
listCourts	List all available courts with metadata

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
mode	Select	One of searchOpinions, searchDockets, listCourts
query	String	Search keyword or phrase (e.g. privacy rights, contract breach)
court	String	Filter to a court by its ID slug (e.g. scotus, ca9, nysd)
dateAfter	String	Only return cases filed after this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
dateBefore	String	Only return cases filed before this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
maxItems	Integer	Max records to return (1–200, default 25)

Output Fields

Opinion Records (mode: searchOpinions)

Field	Type	Description
clusterId	Integer	CourtListener cluster/opinion ID
caseName	String	Case name (e.g. "Roe v. Wade")
court	String	Court ID slug (e.g. scotus, ca9)
courtName	String	Court full name
dateFiled	String	Date filed (YYYY-MM-DD)
docketNumber	String	Docket/case number
absoluteUrl	String	Full URL to the CourtListener opinion page
opinionType	String	Opinion type code (e.g. 010combined)
citeCount	Integer	Number of times cited by other opinions
status	String	Precedential status (Published, Unpublished, etc.)
scrapedAt	String	ISO 8601 UTC timestamp of scrape

Docket Records (mode: searchDockets)

Field	Type	Description
docketId	Integer	CourtListener docket ID
caseName	String	Case name
court	String	Court ID slug
courtName	String	Court full name
dateFiled	String	Date case was filed (YYYY-MM-DD)
docketNumber	String	Docket/case number
absoluteUrl	String	Full URL to the CourtListener docket page
assignedTo	String	Assigned judge name
causeOfAction	String	Cause of action (e.g. "42:1983 Civil Rights")
scrapedAt	String	ISO 8601 UTC timestamp of scrape

Court Records (mode: listCourts)

Field	Type	Description
courtId	String	CourtListener court ID slug (e.g. scotus)
shortName	String	Abbreviated court name
fullName	String	Full official court name
jurisdiction	String	Jurisdiction type code (F=Federal, S=State, etc.)
url	String	Court's official website URL
position	Number	Ordering position in CourtListener's court list
scrapedAt	String	ISO 8601 UTC timestamp of scrape

Example Inputs

Search SCOTUS opinions about privacy rights:

{
  "mode": "searchOpinions",
  "query": "privacy rights Fourth Amendment",
  "court": "scotus",
  "maxItems": 25
}

Search circuit court opinions in a date range:

{
  "mode": "searchOpinions",
  "query": "contract breach damages",
  "court": "ca9",
  "dateAfter": "2020-01-01",
  "dateBefore": "2024-12-31",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Search federal dockets by cause:

{
  "mode": "searchDockets",
  "query": "patent infringement Apple",
  "court": "cafc",
  "maxItems": 30
}

List all available courts:

{
  "mode": "listCourts",
  "maxItems": 200
}

Jurisdiction Codes

The jurisdiction field in court records uses the following codes:

Code	Description
F	Federal Appellate
FD	Federal District
FB	Federal Bankruptcy
FBP	Federal Bankruptcy Panel
FS	Federal Special
FT	Federal Tax
FL	Federal Local Rules
FC	Federal Claims
S	State Supreme
ST	State Trial
SA	State Appellate
MA	Military Appellate
T	Tribal
AG	Attorney General
I	International
BAP	Bankruptcy Appellate Panel

Supported Court IDs (Examples)

Court ID	Court
scotus	Supreme Court of the United States
ca1–ca11	U.S. Courts of Appeals (1st–11th Circuits)
cadc	Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
cafc	Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
nysd	U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
caed	U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California
cit	Court of International Trade

Use mode: listCourts to get the complete list of all supported court IDs.

FAQs

Does this require a CourtListener account or API key?
No. The scraper uses the CourtListener public REST API v4 which is free and requires no authentication.

How many records can I fetch?
Up to 200 per run. For larger datasets, run multiple times with different date ranges. CourtListener has 4M+ opinions and thousands of dockets indexed.

What courts are covered?
All US federal courts (SCOTUS, 13 circuit courts, 94 district courts, bankruptcy courts, specialty courts) plus many state appellate courts. Use mode: listCourts to see all options.

Is this data current?
CourtListener indexes new opinions within days of publication via partnerships with PACER and direct court feeds.

Are there rate limits?
CourtListener allows 5,000 API requests per day per IP address. The scraper automatically handles retries on rate limit responses (429).

What is the difference between opinions and dockets?
An opinion is the court's written decision on a case. A docket is the procedural record of a case including all filings, motions, and orders. One docket can have multiple opinions.

Technical Notes

• Data source: CourtListener.com public REST API v4 (Free Law Project)
• No browser automation — pure HTTP via httpx
• No proxy, cookies, or authentication required
• Link-based pagination (next URL field) for large result sets
• Automatic retries on 429/5xx with exponential backoff + Retry-After header support
• All output fields are non-null (empty fields are omitted)