Case Law

CourtListener has one of the most comprehensive collections of American case law on the Internet.

Having access to complete and reliable data is essential for making informed decisions in the legal field. As of 2023, we believe CourtListener has one of the most complete collections of case law available. Our database encompasses more than 99.9% of all precedential legal case law published in the United States and we are working to close the last 0.1% by scanning decisions directly from books.

Diverse Sources

Our data is sourced from a wide range of reputable institutions and organizations, including prestigious institutions like Public.Resource.org, the Supreme Court Database, Columbia, Harvard, and the Law Library of Congress, among others. These institutions have contributed to the richness and diversity of our collection. For example, thanks to the Caselaw Access Project and our partnership with vLex, we have every legal opinion from Harvard University's law library, going back over 365 years (see how it compares).

Continuous Updates

The legal landscape is constantly evolving. To ensure that our users have access to the most recent case law, we use scrapers to collect case law as soon as it is released by the courts. This technology allows us to continuously update and expand our database, providing users with the most current legal case law available, the moment it happens. Our scrapers have added millions of case law records.

Direct Publishing

In 2020, the non-profit behind CourtListener, Free Law Project, began partnering with courts to enable direct publishing of case law on CourtListener.

Whether supreme courts or courts of limited jurisdiction, we work with courts to publish with us and make sure that neutral citations are generated at the time of issuance.

If you work at a court and believe in the importance of an open legal ecosystem, get in touch.

Millions of Decisions and Thousands of Courts

Our commitment to completeness is reflected in our database's size, which currently contains over nine million legal decisions drawn from over two thousand courts.

This extensive collection ensures that you can find the information you need and we are scanning thousands of books to make that a reality.

Quality

While we emphasize quantity, we also prioritize quality. Our team constantly is working to improve the collection, and has used machine learning and human resources to make over a million corrections to the data set.

Incomplete or inaccurate data can have serious consequences in the legal field, and we are dedicated to maintaining the highest standards. Beyond providing the most accurate information, we also are unique in providing primary source documents found on court websites.

Data for All

We make our data available in numerous formats. Our hope is that when our work is done, it will never need to be done again — All American jurisprudence will be available to all, forever.