Docket Search

Search federal court dockets and filings

Search federal court dockets or retrieve a specific docket with optional filing entries. Covers all federal district and appellate courts. Use legal.listCourts() to resolve court slugs for filtering.

Search dockets

Endpoint

POST /legal/v1/docket

cURL

curl -X POST https://api.case.dev/legal/v1/docket \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CASEDEV_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "search",
    "query": "Apple v. Samsung",
    "court": "cand",
    "dateFiledAfter": "2020-01-01",
    "limit": 10
  }'

Look up a docket

Retrieve a specific docket by ID.

cURL

curl -X POST https://api.case.dev/legal/v1/docket \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CASEDEV_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "lookup",
    "docketId": "4214664"
  }'

Look up docket entries

Pass includeEntries: true in lookup mode to return the docket plus filing entries and attached RECAP document metadata.

cURL

curl -X POST https://api.case.dev/legal/v1/docket \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CASEDEV_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "lookup",
    "docketId": "4214664",
    "includeEntries": true,
    "limit": 10,
    "offset": 0
  }'

Live PACER fetch

For dockets not yet in the RECAP archive, you can trigger a live fetch from PACER. This purchases fresh docket data using CaseMark’s PACER account and ingests it into the RECAP archive.

Live PACER fetches incur PACER fees of up to $3.00 per docket sheet, plus a $0.05 service fee. You must pass acknowledgePacerFees: true to confirm you accept these charges.

cURL

curl -X POST https://api.case.dev/legal/v1/docket \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CASEDEV_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "lookup",
    "docketId": "4214664",
    "live": true,
    "acknowledgePacerFees": true
  }'

How it works

1. The endpoint first tries to fetch the docket from the free RECAP archive
2. If live: true, it triggers a live PACER purchase to fetch fresh docket data
3. CaseMark’s PACER account is used — you don’t need your own PACER credentials
4. The fetch typically takes 5-30 seconds depending on docket size
5. Once fetched, the docket is added to the RECAP archive and freely available for future lookups

Cost and guardrails

Item	Cost
Service fee	$0.05 per request
PACER fee	Up to $3.00 per docket sheet (PACER’s cap)
Maximum total	$3.05 per fetch

Additional guardrails:

• Daily spend cap: $25/day per organization (resets at midnight UTC)
• Fee acknowledgment required: Requests without acknowledgePacerFees: true return 400
• Free tier users: The standard $10 free credit limit applies — live fetches count toward it

Live fetch response

When live: true, the response includes a pacerFees object:

{
  "type": "lookup",
  "live": true,
  "docket": { ... },
  "pacerFees": {
    "serviceFee": 0.05,
    "maxPacerCost": 3.00,
    "currency": "USD",
    "fetchDurationMs": 12500
  }
}

Resolve court IDs

Court slugs like cand, nysd, ca9 identify specific courts. Use legal.listCourts() to search for the correct slug to pass as the court parameter in legal.docket().

Endpoint

POST /legal/v1/courts

cURL

curl -X POST https://api.case.dev/legal/v1/courts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CASEDEV_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "query": "northern district california",
    "jurisdiction": "FD"
  }'

Jurisdiction codes

Code	Jurisdiction
F	Federal (all)
FD	Federal District
FB	Federal Bankruptcy
FA	Federal Appellate
FS	Federal Special (e.g. Tax Court)
S	State (all)
SA	State Appellate
SS	State Supreme

Parameters

Docket search

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
type	'search'	Yes	Search mode
query	string	Yes	Case name or party name (2-500 chars)
court	string	No	Court slug (e.g. cand, ca9). Use legal.listCourts() to find slugs.
dateFiledAfter	string	No	Lower bound filing date (YYYY-MM-DD)
dateFiledBefore	string	No	Upper bound filing date (YYYY-MM-DD)
limit	integer	No	Page size (1-100, default 25)
offset	integer	No	Pagination offset (default 0)

Docket lookup

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
type	'lookup'	Yes	Lookup mode
docketId	string	Yes	Docket ID
includeEntries	boolean	No	Include docket entries/filings (default false).
live	boolean	No	Trigger live PACER fetch (default false)
acknowledgePacerFees	boolean	No	Required when live: true — confirms PACER fee acceptance
limit	integer	No	Entries page size (1-100, default 25)
offset	integer	No	Entries pagination offset (default 0)

Courts lookup

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
query	string	No	Search court name (min 2 chars)
jurisdiction	string	No	Filter by jurisdiction code
inUseOnly	boolean	No	Only courts with docket data (default true)
limit	integer	No	Page size (1-100, default 50)
offset	integer	No	Pagination offset (default 0)

Response fields

Docket object

Field	Type	Description
id	string	Docket ID
caseName	string	Full case name
docketNumber	string	Court docket number (e.g. 5:11-cv-01846)
court	string	Full court name
courtId	string	Court slug
dateFiled	string	Filing date
dateTerminated	string | null	Termination date
cause	string | null	Cause of action (e.g. 35 U.S.C. 271 Patent Infringement)
natureOfSuit	string | null	Nature of suit classification
parties	string[]	Party names
assignedTo	string | null	Assigned judge
url	string	Docket detail URL
pacerCaseId	string | null	PACER case ID

Docket entry

Field	Type	Description
entryNumber	integer	Filing number on the docket
date	string	Filing date
description	string	Docket text (e.g. “COMPLAINT filed by Apple Inc.”)
documents	array	Attached RECAP documents

Document

Field	Type	Description
id	string	Document ID
documentNumber	string	Document number
attachmentNumber	integer | null	Attachment number (null for main document)
description	string	Document description
pdfUrl	string | null	PDF download URL (if available in RECAP)
pageCount	integer | null	Number of pages
isAvailable	boolean	true = free via RECAP archive, false = requires PACER

Pricing

Method	Price
legal.docket()	Free
legal.listCourts()	Free

Data source

All docket data comes from CourtListener’s RECAP archive, which aggregates federal court filings contributed by the RECAP browser extension. Coverage includes:

• All federal district courts
• All federal appellate courts
• Federal bankruptcy courts
• Specialty courts (Tax Court, Court of Federal Claims, etc.)

RECAP coverage varies by court and case. High-profile cases and active litigation tend to have the most complete filing histories.