# UK Court Judgments Scraper (`jungle_synthesizer/uk-bailii-court-judgments-scraper`) Actor Scrapes UK court judgments from The National Archives Find Case Law. Returns neutral citation, court, judges, parties, date, and full judgment text. Covers ~370,000 judgments from UKSC, EWCA, EWHC, and Tribunals since 2003. - **URL**: https://apify.com/jungle\_synthesizer/uk-bailii-court-judgments-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [BowTiedRaccoon](https://apify.com/jungle_synthesizer) (community) - **Categories:** Education, Automation, Other - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing Pay per event This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## UK Court Judgments Scraper — The National Archives Find Case Law Scrapes court judgments from [The National Archives Find Case Law](https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk). Returns structured metadata and full text for judgments published by UK courts — Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court, and Tribunals — covering ~370,000 decisions dating back to 2003. No proxies. No browser. The National Archives runs an official public API that answers XML requests without complaint. --- ### UK Court Judgments Scraper Features - Extracts 14 structured fields per judgment including neutral citation, court code, judge names, parties, and full judgment text - Collects legislation and case references cited in each judgment, automatically extracted from enriched AkomaNtoso XML - Covers all major English and Welsh courts: UKSC, UKHL, EWCA, EWHC, and First-tier and Upper Tribunals - Paginate any segment of the feed — start from page 1 for the newest judgments, or target older date ranges by setting a start page - Caps results precisely via `maxItems` — fetch 10 for a test run or leave it open for a full crawl - Returns ISO-format dates, consistent court codes, and whitespace-normalised judgment text ready for downstream processing - Pure API scraping — no browser or proxy needed. Runs fast at low cost. --- ### Who Uses UK Court Judgment Data? - **Legal tech platforms** — build AI-powered case law research tools on top of structured UK judgment data - **Law firms** — track precedent across EWCA and EWHC decisions, monitor litigation in a specific practice area - **Legal researchers and academics** — corpus analysis, citation networks, NLP training datasets - **Litigation analytics companies** — build judge-level analytics, outcome prediction models, and counsel effectiveness metrics - **Compliance and regulatory teams** — monitor tribunal decisions in tax, employment, and regulatory enforcement - **Alternative legal data vendors** — fill the gap in UK coverage alongside US CourtListener or PACER data --- ### How UK Court Judgments Scraper Works 1. The scraper paginates The National Archives Atom feed (`/atom.xml?page=N`), which lists 50 judgments per page in reverse chronological order. Feed pages 1 through 5 cover the most recent 250 judgments. 2. From each feed entry it extracts the case name, date, court, and neutral citation, then queues the corresponding structured XML file (`/data.xml`). 3. Each `data.xml` is an AkomaNtoso-format document. The scraper parses it to extract judge names, party names, legislation references, and the full judgment body text. 4. Results land in your Apify dataset as flat JSON records, one per judgment. --- ### UK Court Judgments Scraper Input Fields ```json { "maxItems": 10, "startPage": 1, "endPage": 5 } ```` | Field | Type | Default | Description | |-------|------|---------|-------------| | `maxItems` | integer | `10` | Maximum number of judgments to return. Set `0` for no cap. | | `startPage` | integer | `1` | Atom feed page to start from. Page 1 = most recent judgments. | | `endPage` | integer | `5` | Atom feed page to stop at (inclusive). Each page has 50 entries. | To scrape judgments from a specific time period, set `startPage` and `endPage` to bracket the relevant portion of the feed. The feed has ~7,375 pages total as of 2026 — older judgments are at higher page numbers. *** ### UK Court Judgments Scraper Output Fields ```json { "tna_url": "https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/comm/2026/1015", "neutral_citation": "[2026] EWHC 1015 (Comm)", "case_name": "OWH SE iL v RTI Ltd & Anor", "court": "EWHC-KBD", "court_name": "The King's Bench Division of the High Court", "year": 2026, "case_number": "CL-2025-000313", "date": "2026-05-01", "judges": "THE HONOURABLE MRS JUSTICE DIAS", "parties": "OWH SE i.L., RTI LIMITED, UNITED COMPANY RUSAL, IPJSC", "judgment_text": "Mrs Justice Dias: INTRODUCTION 1. I have before me three applications...", "legislation_refs": "1996 c. 23 s. 66; 1996 c. 23; 2018 c. 13; [2026] UKSC 10", "data_xml_url": "https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/comm/2026/1015/data.xml", "scraped_at": "2026-05-05T08:31:52.880Z" } ``` | Field | Type | Description | |-------|------|-------------| | `tna_url` | string | URL of the judgment on The National Archives Find Case Law | | `neutral_citation` | string | Neutral citation number, e.g. `[2026] EWHC 1015 (Comm)` | | `case_name` | string | Case name / title, e.g. `Smith v Jones` | | `court` | string | Court code, e.g. `EWHC-KBD`, `UKSC`, `EWCA-Civ`, `UKFTT-TC` | | `court_name` | string | Full court name | | `year` | integer | Year of judgment | | `case_number` | string | Internal court case number (available for High Court; absent for most Tribunals) | | `date` | string | Date of judgment in ISO 8601 format | | `judges` | string | Judges who heard the case, comma-separated | | `parties` | string | Named parties (claimants and defendants), comma-separated | | `judgment_text` | string | Plain text of the full judgment body, whitespace-normalised | | `legislation_refs` | string | Legislation and cases cited in the judgment, semicolon-separated canonical references | | `data_xml_url` | string | URL of the structured AkomaNtoso XML source file | | `scraped_at` | string | ISO 8601 timestamp when the record was scraped | *** ### 🔍 FAQ **How do I scrape UK court judgments?** UK Court Judgments Scraper fetches data directly from The National Archives' public Atom feed and structured XML endpoints. Set your `maxItems` and page range, click Run, and get structured JSON output. **How much does UK Court Judgments Scraper cost to run?** Pricing is pay-per-event: $0.10 per actor start, plus $0.00125 per judgment returned (1.25x the base rate). Scraping 1,000 judgments costs roughly $1.35. The actor runs without proxies, which keeps infrastructure costs low. **What courts are covered?** The scraper covers all courts published on The National Archives Find Case Law: UK Supreme Court (UKSC), House of Lords (UKHL), Court of Appeal Civil and Criminal Divisions (EWCA), High Court divisions (EWHC), First-tier Tribunals, and Upper Tribunals. Coverage goes back to 2003, with some older decisions. **Can I filter by court or date?** Date filtering is done via `startPage` and `endPage` — the Atom feed is in reverse chronological order so newer judgments are at lower page numbers. Court filtering can be applied downstream on the `court` field. Per-court API endpoints are also available if you need to target a specific court directly. **Does UK Court Judgments Scraper need proxies or a browser?** Neither. The National Archives runs an official open-access API with no authentication requirement, no bot detection, and no geo-restriction. The scraper uses direct HTTP requests throughout. *** ### Need More Features? Need additional fields, custom filtering, or a different UK legal data source? [File an issue](https://console.apify.com/actors/issues) or get in touch. ### Why Use UK Court Judgments Scraper? - **First UK case law scraper on Apify** — zero competing actors for BAILII or TNA data as of 2026 - **Structured output from an official source** — extracts from TNA's own enriched AkomaNtoso XML, not scraped HTML, so citation data and party names are clean - **Affordable at scale** — no proxies, no browser, no CAPTCHA costs. ~$1.35 per 1,000 judgments. # Actor input Schema ## `sp_intended_usage` (type: `string`): Please describe how you plan to use the data extracted by this crawler. ## `sp_improvement_suggestions` (type: `string`): Provide any feedback or suggestions for improvements. ## `sp_contact` (type: `string`): Provide your email address so we can get in touch with you. ## `maxItems` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of judgments to scrape. Use a small value (e.g. 10) for testing. Set 0 to scrape all available judgments. ## `startPage` (type: `integer`): Atom feed page number to start from (1 = most recent). Use to resume from a specific point or target a date range. ## `endPage` (type: `integer`): Atom feed page number to stop at (inclusive). Defaults to 5 for test runs. Each page contains 50 judgments. ## Actor input object example ```json { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "maxItems": 10, "startPage": 1, "endPage": 5 } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `results` (type: `string`): No description # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "maxItems": 10, "startPage": 1, "endPage": 5 }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("jungle_synthesizer/uk-bailii-court-judgments-scraper").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "maxItems": 10, "startPage": 1, "endPage": 5, } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("jungle_synthesizer/uk-bailii-court-judgments-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "maxItems": 10, "startPage": 1, "endPage": 5 }' | apify call jungle_synthesizer/uk-bailii-court-judgments-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=jungle_synthesizer/uk-bailii-court-judgments-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "UK Court Judgments Scraper", "description": "Scrapes UK court judgments from The National Archives Find Case Law. Returns neutral citation, court, judges, parties, date, and full judgment text. Covers ~370,000 judgments from UKSC, EWCA, EWHC, and Tribunals since 2003.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "hVQCTzlWUqcbKyHOP" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/jungle_synthesizer~uk-bailii-court-judgments-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-jungle_synthesizer-uk-bailii-court-judgments-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/jungle_synthesizer~uk-bailii-court-judgments-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-jungle_synthesizer-uk-bailii-court-judgments-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/jungle_synthesizer~uk-bailii-court-judgments-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-jungle_synthesizer-uk-bailii-court-judgments-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "sp_intended_usage": { "title": "What is the intended usage of this data?", "minLength": 1, "type": "string", "description": "Please describe how you plan to use the data extracted by this crawler." }, "sp_improvement_suggestions": { "title": "How can we improve this crawler for you?", "minLength": 1, "type": "string", "description": "Provide any feedback or suggestions for improvements." }, "sp_contact": { "title": "Contact Email", "minLength": 1, "type": "string", "description": "Provide your email address so we can get in touch with you." }, "maxItems": { "title": "Max Items", "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of judgments to scrape. Use a small value (e.g. 10) for testing. Set 0 to scrape all available judgments.", "default": 10 }, "startPage": { "title": "Start Page", "type": "integer", "description": "Atom feed page number to start from (1 = most recent). Use to resume from a specific point or target a date range.", "default": 1 }, "endPage": { "title": "End Page", "type": "integer", "description": "Atom feed page number to stop at (inclusive). Defaults to 5 for test runs. Each page contains 50 judgments.", "default": 5 } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```