OrbTop

PACER RECAP Federal Docket Scraper

OTHER
Try on Apify

PACER RECAP Federal Docket Scraper

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

{
  "case_name": "Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.",
  "docket_number": "5:11-cv-01846",
  "court": "United States District Court, N.D. California",
  "court_id": "cand",
  "date_filed": "2011-04-15",
  "date_terminated": "2018-06-27",
  "nature_of_suit": "Patent",
  "assigned_to": "Lucy H. Koh",
  "parties": "Apple Inc. | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.",
  "recap_documents": "[{\"url\": \"https://www.courtlistener.com/...\", \"desc\": \"Complaint\"}]",
  "docket_url": "https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/1258091/apple-inc-v-samsung-electronics-co-ltd/",
  "source_url": "https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/dockets/1258091/"
}

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.

Try on Apify