US Court Records Scraper

Search millions of US federal court records from CourtListener and the RECAP archive. Access dockets, opinions, and documents from all federal courts including District Courts, Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the Supreme Court.

What This Scraper Does

This actor uses the CourtListener API to search and extract:

• Dockets - Federal court case information with parties, judges, and status
• Opinions - Court rulings and decisions with full text
• Documents - Links to actual court filings from the RECAP archive

Data Coverage

CourtListener provides access to:

• ~60+ million federal court docket entries
• ~5+ million court opinions
• All 94 US District Courts
• 13 Circuit Courts of Appeals
• US Supreme Court complete archives

Getting Your FREE API Token

1. Create a free account at https://www.courtlistener.com/sign-in/
2. Log in and go to your profile settings
3. Click "Generate API Token"
4. Copy the token and paste it in the courtListenerToken input field

The API token is required but completely free. CourtListener is a nonprofit project by the Free Law Project.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Required	Description	Example
courtListenerToken	Yes	Your free API token	"abc123..."
searchQuery	No	Search term for parties, case titles	"Apple Inc", "patent"
court	No	Court code to filter by	"scotus", "ca9", "cacd"
jurisdiction	No	Jurisdiction type	"FD" (District), "F" (Appellate)
dateFrom	No	Filter by filing date start	"2024-01-01"
dateTo	No	Filter by filing date end	"2024-12-31"
maxResults	No	Max records to return	100 (max 1000)
includeDocuments	No	Include document links	true

Court Codes

Supreme Court

Code	Court
scotus	Supreme Court of the United States

Circuit Courts of Appeals

Code	Court
ca1 - ca11	1st - 11th Circuit
cadc	DC Circuit
cafc	Federal Circuit

Popular District Courts

Code	Court
cacd	Central District of California
nysd	Southern District of New York
txsd	Southern District of Texas
ilnd	Northern District of Illinois
flsd	Southern District of Florida
dcd	District of Columbia

Output Schema

{
  "caseNumber": "2:24-cv-01234",
  "caseTitle": "Smith v. Jones Corp",
  "caseType": "civil",
  "filingDate": "2024-03-15",
  "court": "cacd",
  "courtName": "Central District of California",
  "judge": "Hon. John Smith",
  "referredJudge": null,
  "parties": {
    "plaintiffs": null,
    "defendants": null
  },
  "status": "open",
  "dateTerminated": null,
  "natureOfSuit": "Contract",
  "jurisdiction": "Federal District",
  "caseUrl": "https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/123456/",
  "pacerCaseId": "12345",
  "documents": [
    {
      "entryNumber": 1,
      "description": "Complaint",
      "dateFiled": "2024-03-15",
      "documentUrl": "https://storage.courtlistener.com/..."
    }
  ],
  "source": "CourtListener/RECAP",
  "scrapedAt": "2024-03-20T12:00:00Z"
}

Use Cases

• Legal Research - Find relevant case law and precedents
• Due Diligence - Check litigation history of companies
• Competitive Intelligence - Monitor competitor litigation
• Lead Generation - Find attorneys handling specific case types
• Academic Research - Analyze legal trends and outcomes
• Journalism - Investigate public court records
• Patent Analysis - Track patent litigation across industries

Example Searches

Search by Company Name

{
  "courtListenerToken": "your-token-here",
  "searchQuery": "Apple Inc",
  "court": "cacd",
  "maxResults": 50
}

Search Patent Cases in 2024

{
  "courtListenerToken": "your-token-here",
  "searchQuery": "patent infringement",
  "dateFrom": "2024-01-01",
  "dateTo": "2024-12-31",
  "maxResults": 100
}

Search 9th Circuit Appeals

{
  "courtListenerToken": "your-token-here",
  "searchQuery": "immigration",
  "court": "ca9",
  "maxResults": 200
}

Rate Limits

• CourtListener has reasonable rate limits for API access
• This scraper adds 100ms delays between requests
• For large searches, results may take several minutes
• The first 20 results include document links (additional API calls)

About CourtListener

CourtListener is operated by the Free Law Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. They provide:

• Free access to court records
• The RECAP browser extension that crowdsources PACER documents
• APIs for legal data access
• Alerts for case updates

Limitations

• Only federal court records (no state courts)
• Party extraction requires additional API calls (not included by default)
• Document availability depends on RECAP archive coverage
• Very recent filings may have a delay

Legal Notice

This scraper accesses publicly available federal court records through CourtListener's API. Federal court records are public documents. Users are responsible for:

• Complying with CourtListener's Terms of Service
• Using data in accordance with applicable regulations
• Following FCRA requirements if used for employment/credit decisions

Support

For issues or feature requests, contact the author or open an issue in the repository.