CourtListener and RECAP
Explore court opinions, federal dockets, and available filings while keeping allegations and findings distinct.
Explore the original source- Published by
- Free Law Project
- Getting in
- Free public browsing; API levels and requests for missing PACER material have separate conditions.
- What you can work with
- HTML · PDF · JSON API · Bulk data
- Links and access checked
A good place to start
Search an established case name; identify its court, opinion date, and any linked docket before making a timeline.
What you can find
CourtListener brings legal opinions and other court materials into public reach. Its RECAP collection includes federal dockets and available filings. A docket is a case's register of events; a filing is a document within that record. An opinion explains a court's decision. Keeping those forms distinct makes the collection easier to read.
A public-access story
Michael Lissner announced CourtListener on May 1, 2010. The launch centered on making court opinions searchable and helping people follow new decisions. This origin matters: the tool grew around access to material that shapes public life.
RECAP came from a related effort. In its 2014 partnership account, Free Law Project describes Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy launching RECAP in August 2009, then partnering with Free Law Project to operate and develop it. The browser extension helped people contribute PACER documents to a shared archive. The account credits Steve Schultze, Harlan Yu, Timothy Lee, and Ed Felten in that history.
The current RECAP overview explains how contributed documents become available to others and how the archive connects to CourtListener. Access grows through infrastructure and participation; it does not mean every federal record is already present.
Try this first
Find an established case by name in CourtListener. Record the court and decision date. If a docket is linked, compare its entries with the available documents. Build a short timeline in which each event points to a record, and mark absent documents as gaps.
Access and reuse
Read the service terms before using automated access or republishing material. Public browsing, API service levels, and purchasing missing PACER documents are different activities. Avoid reproducing unnecessary personal details from filings.
Provenance
Keep the case name, court, docket number, document number, date, and page reference. Attribute allegations to the party making them and findings to the court. A later decision may change the story; an incomplete archive is not evidence that nothing else happened.
What to watch for
- RECAP is not a complete copy of every PACER docket and filing.
- A complaint contains allegations, not established findings.
- Later orders or appeals may change the meaning of an earlier document.