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PACER RECAP Federal Docket Scraper
Scrape federal court docket data from the free RECAP archive via the CourtListener API. Search by keyword, court, date range, or jurisdiction. Returns case metadata, parties, attorneys, filing dates, and document links for millions of federal cases.
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Pay per event
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22 days ago
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Retrieve federal court docket data from the free PACER RECAP archive via the CourtListener API. Search across millions of federal cases (civil, criminal, and bankruptcy) by keyword, court, date range, or jurisdiction. Returns structured records for each case including parties, attorneys, filing dates, and links to publicly available RECAP documents.
What This Actor Does
The PACER RECAP project — maintained by the Free Law Project — has made millions of federal court dockets freely available that were originally behind the PACER paywall. This actor queries the CourtListener REST API to retrieve that data in a structured, ready-to-use format.
Data covered:
- All United States federal district courts (civil, criminal)
- All United States federal bankruptcy courts (Chapters 7, 11, 13, 15)
- Appeals courts with RECAP-archived filings
- Millions of dockets dating back to the 1970s
Use Cases
- Legal analytics: Track litigation trends by court, jurisdiction, or nature of suit
- Due diligence: Research litigation history for companies or individuals
- Bankruptcy monitoring: Monitor Chapter 11 filings for specific companies or industries
- Academic research: Analyze patterns in federal court filings over time
- Competitive intelligence: Monitor IP litigation, product liability, or antitrust cases
Input Parameters
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
query | String | Keywords to search case names, parties, and docket text. Leave blank to retrieve the most recent dockets. |
courtId | String | Filter by court ID (e.g. cand for N.D. Cal., nysd for S.D.N.Y., deb for D. Del. Bankruptcy). |
caseType | String | Filter by case type: blank = all RECAP dockets, b = bankruptcy cases only. |
dateFiledAfter | String | Only include cases filed on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD format). |
dateFiledBefore | String | Only include cases filed on or before this date (YYYY-MM-DD format). |
maxItems | Integer | Maximum number of docket records to return. |
Output Fields
Each record includes:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
case_name | Short case name (e.g. "Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics") |
case_name_full | Full case name as filed |
docket_number | Official docket number (e.g. "3:22-cv-01234") |
docket_id | CourtListener internal docket ID |
court | Full court name |
court_id | Short court identifier (e.g. "cand", "nysd") |
court_citation_string | Citation abbreviation (e.g. "N.D. Cal.") |
date_filed | Date the case was filed |
date_terminated | Date the case was terminated (if closed) |
jurisdiction_type | Jurisdiction type classification |
nature_of_suit | Nature of suit code or description |
cause | Statutory cause of action |
jury_demand | Whether a jury trial was demanded |
chapter | Bankruptcy chapter (7, 11, 13, etc.) for bankruptcy cases |
assigned_to | Assigned judge name |
referred_to | Referring judge name |
pacer_case_id | Original PACER case ID |
parties | Pipe-separated list of party names |
attorneys | Pipe-separated list of attorney names |
firms | Pipe-separated list of law firm names |
recap_documents | JSON array of available RECAP document links |
docket_url | Full CourtListener URL for the docket |
source_url | Direct API URL for the docket record |
Example Output
Rate Limits
The CourtListener API is free to use without authentication at standard rate limits. The actor includes built-in delays to stay within these limits.
Data Source
All data comes from the CourtListener RECAP archive maintained by the Free Law Project. RECAP data is donated by users of the PACER system and is freely available to the public.
