courtlistener-api-client 0.0.5

Official Python SDK for the CourtListener API

CourtListener API Client

A Python client for the CourtListener API, providing access to millions of legal opinions, dockets, judges, and more from Free Law Project.

Installation

pip install courtlistener-api-client

Authentication

You'll need a CourtListener API token. You can get one by creating an account and generating a token in your profile settings.

Set it as an environment variable:

export COURTLISTENER_API_TOKEN="your-token-here"

Or pass it directly to the client:

from courtlistener import CourtListener

client = CourtListener(api_token="your-token-here")

Quickstart

from courtlistener import CourtListener

client = CourtListener()

# Get a specific opinion by ID
opinion = client.opinions.get(1)

# Search for opinions
response = client.opinions.list(cluster__case_name="Miranda")

# Access results from the current page
for opinion in response.results:
    print(opinion)

# Check the total count of matching results
print(response.count)

# Iterate through all results across pages
response = client.dockets.list(court="scotus")
for docket in response:
    print(docket)

Pagination

List queries return a ResourceIterator that handles pagination automatically:

results = client.dockets.list(court="scotus")

# Iterate through all results across all pages
for docket in results:
    print(docket)

# Or navigate pages manually
results = client.dockets.list(court="scotus")
print(results.results)   # current page results

if results.has_next():
    results.next()
    print(results.results)  # next page results

Available Endpoints

Access any endpoint as an attribute on the client. Each endpoint supports .get(id) and .list(**filters).

Endpoint	Description
search	Search opinions, RECAP, judges, and oral arguments
dockets	Court dockets
docket_entries	Docket entries
recap_documents	RECAP documents
opinions	Court opinions
opinions_cited	Citation relationships
clusters	Opinion clusters
courts	Court information
audio	Oral argument audio
people	Judges and other persons
positions	Judge positions
parties	Case parties
attorneys	Attorneys
financial_disclosures	Financial disclosures
alerts	User alerts
docket_alerts	Docket alerts
tags	User-created tags
visualizations	Visualization data
schools	Schools
educations	Judge education records
political_affiliations	Political affiliations
aba_ratings	ABA ratings
fjc_integrated_database	FJC integrated database

See the CourtListener API docs for the full list and available filters.