US Court Filing Alerts (CourtListener)

Search US court opinions and federal dockets, or watch specific dockets for new filings, using the CourtListener API. Get clean rows (case name, court, docket number, filing date, a short excerpt, a link) and run it on a schedule to receive only results you have not seen.

You need your own free CourtListener API token. The Actor calls CourtListener with your token, so the requests count against your own account's allowance. Getting a token takes a few minutes (see "Get your token" below).

Not legal advice, and not for consumer reports. This Actor returns public court records as they appear on CourtListener. It does not interpret them. CourtListener's terms do not allow its data to be used for consumer reporting (FCRA) purposes.

Three modes

Mode	Give it	You get
Opinions	Search queries, courts, case name or docket number	One row per case-law opinion cluster: case name, court, filing date, docket number, judge, citations, how often it is cited, an excerpt and a link.
Dockets	The same filters	One row per federal docket (including bankruptcy courts): case name, court, docket number, filing date, judge, cause, nature of suit, parties, up to three recent documents and a link.
Docket entries	CourtListener docket numbers	One row per new filing on the dockets you watch: date, entry number, description, its documents and links.

Use the Dockets mode to find a case and its docket number, then put that number in Docket entries mode to be alerted to new filings in the case.

Get your token

1. Create a free CourtListener account and sign in.
2. Open the API page of your profile and copy your token.
3. Paste it into the CourtListener API token field. It is stored as a secret setting, so it is hidden after you save it.

CourtListener refuses requests without a token. Free accounts have small limits: their documentation lists about 5 requests a minute, 50 an hour and 125 a day. This Actor is built around that: each request returns up to 20 results, the default is 5 requests per run, and when CourtListener asks for a short pause (under about a minute and a half) the Actor waits and continues. If a longer limit is reached, the run ends with a note and keeps what it delivered. Check your own account's limits on CourtListener; paid memberships raise them.

Input

Field	What it does
courtListenerToken	Your CourtListener token (required).
mode	opinions, dockets or docket-entries. Default opinions.
queries	Search queries for opinions and dockets. Each is a separate search. Quotes match phrases; AND, OR and NOT work as on the CourtListener website.
courts	CourtListener court codes such as scotus, ca9, cand or nysb. Empty means all courts.
caseName, docketNumber	Optional filters.
includeUnpublished	Opinions mode only. CourtListener leaves out unpublished and unknown-status opinions unless asked, which hides many trial-court rulings. On by default, so those are included; turn it off for published opinions only.
docketIds	Docket-entries mode: docket numbers or CourtListener docket page addresses.
daysBack, dateFrom, dateTo	The filing-date window. Default: the last 7 days.
onlyNew	Deliver only results not delivered before for this search or docket. On by default.
maxResults	Stop after this many rows. Default 100.
maxRequests	Safety limit on requests per run. Default 5.

A search needs at least one of queries, courts, caseName or docketNumber, so it cannot accidentally match every court record.

Alerts on a schedule

1. Choose a mode, paste your token and set your search (or your docket numbers).
2. Leave onlyNew on and set daysBack to a little more than the gap between runs.
3. Schedule the Actor from the Apify Console (for example every morning).
4. Each run delivers only results you have not seen. If a run stops early (cost cap, request cap or a CourtListener limit), the next run continues where it stopped.

The "already delivered" list is kept in a storage called court-filing-alerts-state in your own Apify account. The first time you watch a docket, the Actor also saves its case name and docket number there so it does not spend a request on them again.

Pricing

You pay per row delivered (pay per event). Apify's platform usage is included, so you are not billed for it separately. See the Pricing tab for the current price. Set a maximum cost per run in the run options to cap spending: the Actor stops as soon as the cap is reached. CourtListener's own charges, if any, are between you and CourtListener.

Limits and good to know

• Small allowances. With a free token you can read roughly 20 results per request and a limited number of requests per day, so very broad searches take several runs. Narrow searches with courts and dates.
• Dockets mode finds cases by their filing date. To follow what happens inside a case, put its docket number in Docket entries mode.
• Coverage depends on CourtListener. Federal dockets and documents in the RECAP archive are only as complete as CourtListener's collection; not every filing on PACER is there.
• Descriptions are the court's. Docket entry descriptions are cut at 1,000 characters.
• Your token, your use. The Actor uses the token you supply. CourtListener's terms cover how its API and data may be used, including for commercial products; read them before building a business on this data.
• Court records can contain personal information. You are responsible for using it lawfully.

Data source and disclaimer

Data comes from CourtListener, a project of the Free Law Project. This Actor is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by CourtListener or the Free Law Project.