# Fast CourtListener Scraper — PACER Federal Dockets (`rbbscrap/courtlistener-docket-scraper`) Actor
Ultra-fast federal court docket and PACER RECAP legal intelligence scraper. Search case names, docket numbers, federal courts, judges, plaintiffs, defendants, and legal filings with zero browser bloat on 256MB RAM.
- **URL**: https://apify.com/rbbscrap/courtlistener-docket-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Hector](https://apify.com/rbbscrap) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 1 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet
## Pricing
from $0.35 / 1,000 court docket / federal legal entry extracteds
This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.
Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event
## What's an Apify Actor?
An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.
Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.
## 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.
Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.
For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.
Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).
# README
## ⚖️ Fast CourtListener Scraper — PACER Federal Dockets & Legal Intelligence
### 📦 Sample Output — 17+ Fields per Record
```json
{
"caseName": "United States v. Google LLC",
"docketNumber": "1:20-cv-03010-APM",
"courtName": "U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia",
"courtId": "dcd",
"dateFiled": "2020-10-20",
"dateTerminated": null,
"caseType": "Civil Litigation",
"natureOfSuit": "Antitrust (Sherman Act Section 2 Search Monopoly)"
}
```
**What you get:** Case Name · Docket Number · Court Name · Court Id · Date Filed · Date Terminated · Case Type · Nature Of Suit
> `$0.001/run` · No browser · Export JSON / CSV / Google Sheets
***
> ### 🎁 Free Tier: Extract up to 1,000 items 100% FREE!
>
> **No credit card required • Powered by Apify Free Plan**
>
> Every Apify user receives **$5.00 in free starter credits every month**!
> You can test and extract up to **1,000 records 100% free** with this scraper before paying anything.
>
> [](https://apify.com/rbbscrap/fast-courtlistener-docket-scraper/input)
> [](https://apify.com/rbbscrap/fast-courtlistener-docket-scraper/input)
> [](https://apify.com/rbbscrap/fast-courtlistener-docket-scraper/input)
>
> 👉 [**Click here to Launch a Free Test Run with 1 Click (Pre-filled)**](https://apify.com/rbbscrap/fast-courtlistener-docket-scraper/input)
Ultra-fast, enterprise-grade scraper for **CourtListener RECAP**, the nation's premier open archive of **U.S. Federal Court Dockets and PACER legal documents**. Search millions of federal civil lawsuits, criminal prosecutions, Chapter 11 corporate bankruptcies, and appellate dockets without paying $0.10/page in official PACER government fees.
***
### 💎 Why This High-Ticket Niche Matters
Legal litigation intelligence and PACER data are multibillion-dollar commercial sectors. Litigation finance funds, top-tier corporate law firms, intellectual property litigators, and hedge funds pay **$500 to $2,500/month** for platforms like Lex Machina and Docket Alarm. Our scraper extracts high-value docket entries, judges, parties, and law firms for a fraction of the cost.
***
### ⚡ Comparison vs Existing Competitors
| Feature | Competitor Scrapers (`nexgendata`, `fortuitous_pirate`) | **Fast CourtListener Scraper (Ours)** |
|---|---|---|
| **Price Per Docket** | **$0.10 per docket** (Very expensive!) | **~$0.15 per 1,000 dockets (600x cheaper!)** |
| **RAM Footprint** | 1024 MB – 2048 MB | **256 MB (Ultra-lightweight API-First)** |
| **Execution Speed** | 15 – 45 seconds | **Sub-second (1 – 2 seconds)** |
| **Entity Extraction** | Dumps raw obscure CourtListener IDs | **Clean: Presiding Judge, Magistrate, Parties, Law Firms** |
| **Jurisdiction Filtering** | Complex query syntax required | **Dropdown menu for D.D.C., S.D.N.Y., N.D. Cal., D. Del., etc.** |
| **Resilience & Uptime** | Unhandled 429/500 API errors | **100% Guaranteed Non-Empty Output** |
***
### 🛠️ Input Parameters
| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `query` | String | `"Google Antitrust"` | Lawsuit keywords, company name, or party name (`"Apple"`, `"Securities Fraud"`, `"Patent"`) |
| `court` | String (enum) | `"all"` | Filter by federal court (`dcd`, `nysd`, `cand`, `txed`, `ded`, `scotus`, etc.) |
| `caseType` | String (enum) | `"all"` | Legal case type (`civil`, `criminal`, `bankruptcy`, `appellate`) |
| `docketNumber` | String | `""` | Specific federal case docket (e.g. `"1:20-cv-03010"`) |
| `maxItems` | Integer | `30` | Maximum dockets to extract |
***
### 📦 Output Dataset Sample
```json
{
"caseName": "United States v. Google LLC",
"docketNumber": "1:20-cv-03010-APM",
"courtName": "U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia",
"courtId": "dcd",
"dateFiled": "2020-10-20",
"dateTerminated": null,
"caseType": "Civil Litigation",
"natureOfSuit": "Antitrust (Sherman Act Section 2 Search Monopoly)",
"presidingJudge": "Amit P. Mehta",
"assignedMagistrate": "G. Michael Harvey",
"plaintiffs": [
"United States of America",
"State of Colorado",
"State of New York"
],
"defendants": [
"Google LLC",
"Alphabet Inc."
],
"counsel": [
"U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division",
"Williams & Connolly LLP",
"Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP"
],
"docketEntriesCount": 1142,
"latestEntryDate": "2024-08-05",
"docketUrl": "https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/18544439/united-states-v-google-llc/",
"scrapedAt": "2026-10-27T22:00:00.000Z"
}
```
# Actor input Schema
## `query` (type: `string`):
Party name, company, or lawsuit keywords (e.g., 'Google LLC', 'Apple Inc', 'Antitrust', 'Securities Fraud', 'Patent Infringement').
## `court` (type: `string`):
Filter by US District or Appellate Court.
## `caseType` (type: `string`):
Filter by legal case type.
## `docketNumber` (type: `string`):
Specific federal docket number (e.g., '1:20-cv-03010', '20-cv-05640').
## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):
Maximum number of court dockets to extract.
## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):
Select Apify Proxy.
## Actor input object example
```json
{
"query": "Google Antitrust",
"court": "all",
"caseType": "all",
"maxItems": 10
}
```
# 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 = {
"query": "Google Antitrust",
"court": "all",
"caseType": "all",
"maxItems": 10
};
// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("rbbscrap/courtlistener-docket-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 = {
"query": "Google Antitrust",
"court": "all",
"caseType": "all",
"maxItems": 10,
}
# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("rbbscrap/courtlistener-docket-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)
# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
print(item)
# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start
```
## CLI example
```bash
echo '{
"query": "Google Antitrust",
"court": "all",
"caseType": "all",
"maxItems": 10
}' |
apify call rbbscrap/courtlistener-docket-scraper --silent --output-dataset
```
## MCP server setup
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"apify": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,rbbscrap/courtlistener-docket-scraper"
}
}
}
```
The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer ` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).
## OpenAPI specification
Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/I6l1SD8fDiCGWNwyT/builds/d2UB0wru0Ohc7nDgp/openapi.json