# Us Court Records Scraper (`logical_vivacity/us-court-records-scraper`) Actor A unified Apify Actor that scrapes opinions and oral arguments from 200+ US court websites (all federal appellate courts, the Supreme Court, and most state courts of last resort). - **URL**: https://apify.com/logical\_vivacity/us-court-records-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [Logical Vivacity](https://apify.com/logical_vivacity) (community) - **Categories:** Other, Automation, News - **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $20.00 / 1,000 results 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 ## US Court Records Scraper A unified Apify Actor that scrapes opinions and oral arguments from **200+ US court websites** (all federal appellate courts, the Supreme Court, and most state courts of last resort). ### What it does - Dynamically loads any supported court by short id (`scotus`, `ca1`, `ny`, `cal`, ...) and parses the latest batch of opinions or oral arguments the court has published. - Normalises every record into a JSON dataset row with stable field names (`case_name`, `docket_number`, `date_filed`, `judge`, `neutral_citation`, `download_url`, etc.). - Optionally downloads the underlying PDF / audio file and stores it in the default key-value store. - Per-court timeout and try/except so one broken court never aborts the run. ### Inputs | Field | Type | Default | Description | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | `courtIds` | string[] | `["scotus"]` | Court short names (e.g. `scotus`, `ca1`, `ny`). Ignored when `scrapeAll` is true. | | `scrapeAll` | boolean | `false` | If true, auto-discover and scrape every court module under the chosen `documentType`. | | `documentType` | enum | `opinions` | `opinions` or `oral_arguments`. | | `maxOpinionsPerCourt` | integer | `100` | Hard cap on records per court. | | `downloadDocuments` | boolean | `false` | Fetch the PDF / audio and save it to the key-value store as `-`. | | `proxyConfiguration` | object | Apify Proxy on | **Strongly recommended.** Many state court sites throttle or block repeat hits from a single IP. Defaults to Apify Proxy with the `RESIDENTIAL` group. Set `useApifyProxy: false` to disable. | ### Output sample Each dataset record looks like: ```json { "court_id": "scotus", "document_type": "opinions", "scraped_at": "2026-04-26T12:00:00Z", "case_name": "United States v. Doe", "case_names": "United States v. Doe", "docket_number": "23-145", "docket_numbers": "23-145", "date_filed": "2026-04-15", "case_dates": "2026-04-15", "judge": "Roberts", "judges": "Roberts", "neutral_citation": "601 U.S. ___", "citations": "601 U.S. ___", "download_url": "https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/23-145_8njq.pdf", "download_urls": "https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/23-145_8njq.pdf", "precedential_statuses": "Published", "document_storage_key": "scotus-0" } ```` When `downloadDocuments=true`, the binary at `download_url` is stored under `document_storage_key` in the default key-value store. ### Why a proxy matters Federal appellate courts (`ca1`-`ca11`, `scotus`) usually tolerate repeated hits from a single IP. Many **state** court portals (CA, NY, TX, FL and others) will throttle or block after a handful of requests from the same IP within a short window. Routing through Apify's residential proxy pool keeps runs reliable across the long tail of state courts. Datacenter proxies work for federal courts but get blocked by the strictest state portals. ### Limitations - **Court sites change frequently.** Individual court scrapers break regularly when courts redesign their pages. Expect some courts to fail on any given run - failures are logged and the run continues. - Most court sites only expose the most recent batch (typically the last 10-100 opinions). This Actor does **not** perform historical backfill; use [CourtListener](https://www.courtlistener.com/) for archival data. - Some courts (notably PACER and a handful of state portals) require authentication or JavaScript rendering and are not supported by this Actor configuration. - Georgia state court is not currently supported. # Actor input Schema ## `courtIds` (type: `array`): List of court short names to scrape (e.g. 'scotus', 'ca1', 'ny', 'cal'). Ignored if 'scrapeAll' is true. Use 'scrapeAll' to enumerate all supported courts. ## `scrapeAll` (type: `boolean`): If true, automatically discover and scrape every court module under the chosen documentType. Overrides 'courtIds'. Warning: this can take a long time. ## `documentType` (type: `string`): Whether to scrape written opinions or oral arguments. ## `maxOpinionsPerCourt` (type: `integer`): Cap on number of records pushed per court. Most court sites only expose the most recent batch (typically 10-100 items) per scrape. ## `downloadDocuments` (type: `boolean`): If true, fetch the underlying document (usually a PDF) for each opinion and store it in the default key-value store. Adds significant runtime and bandwidth cost. ## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`): Strongly recommended. Many state court sites throttle or block repeat hits from a single IP. Route requests through Apify Proxy (residential or datacenter) to keep runs reliable. ## Actor input object example ```json { "courtIds": [ "scotus" ], "scrapeAll": false, "documentType": "opinions", "maxOpinionsPerCourt": 100, "downloadDocuments": false, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } } ``` # 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 = { "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("logical_vivacity/us-court-records-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 = { "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"], } } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("logical_vivacity/us-court-records-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 '{ "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } }' | apify call logical_vivacity/us-court-records-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=logical_vivacity/us-court-records-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Us Court Records Scraper", "description": "A unified Apify Actor that scrapes opinions and oral arguments from 200+ US court websites (all federal appellate courts, the Supreme Court, and most state courts of last resort).", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "bMtOfGmyLnrRNYmRn" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/logical_vivacity~us-court-records-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-logical_vivacity-us-court-records-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": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/logical_vivacity~us-court-records-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-logical_vivacity-us-court-records-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$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": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/logical_vivacity~us-court-records-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-logical_vivacity-us-court-records-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$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": { "courtIds": { "title": "Court IDs", "uniqueItems": true, "type": "array", "description": "List of court short names to scrape (e.g. 'scotus', 'ca1', 'ny', 'cal'). Ignored if 'scrapeAll' is true. Use 'scrapeAll' to enumerate all supported courts.", "default": [ "scotus" ], "items": { "type": "string" } }, "scrapeAll": { "title": "Scrape all available courts", "type": "boolean", "description": "If true, automatically discover and scrape every court module under the chosen documentType. Overrides 'courtIds'. Warning: this can take a long time.", "default": false }, "documentType": { "title": "Document type", "enum": [ "opinions", "oral_arguments" ], "type": "string", "description": "Whether to scrape written opinions or oral arguments.", "default": "opinions" }, "maxOpinionsPerCourt": { "title": "Max items per court", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 10000, "type": "integer", "description": "Cap on number of records pushed per court. Most court sites only expose the most recent batch (typically 10-100 items) per scrape.", "default": 100 }, "downloadDocuments": { "title": "Download documents (PDFs)", "type": "boolean", "description": "If true, fetch the underlying document (usually a PDF) for each opinion and store it in the default key-value store. Adds significant runtime and bandwidth cost.", "default": false }, "proxyConfiguration": { "title": "Proxy configuration", "type": "object", "description": "Strongly recommended. Many state court sites throttle or block repeat hits from a single IP. Route requests through Apify Proxy (residential or datacenter) to keep runs reliable.", "default": { "useApifyProxy": true } } } }, "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 } } } } } } } } } } ```