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Legal research

CourtListener

Non-profit free legal research covering opinions, dockets, and PACER.

Status
Active
Data statements
Partial
Last checked
September 21, 2026
Price path
Contact sales
Firm size
Not stated

Last observed 42 days ago. Records are treated as awaiting re-check after ninety days.

Only some data-handling statements were found. The checked sources did not contain all three of a confidentiality, training, and data-location statement. That is a gap in what the vendor publishes, not a finding about the product. Ask the vendor directly, or weigh it however your firm sees fit.

Editorial assessment

A free, non-profit legal research platform with an open API.

This section is the CounselAtlas editorial desk’s own reading of the dated facts below. It is not a vendor statement, not a rating, and not a recommendation. Every product fact it rests on is recorded with a source in the record.

What it is

A free legal research website run by the non-profit Free Law Project, covering millions of federal and state opinions, plus dockets and PACER data through the RECAP archive.

What it is not

It is not a commercial research platform and does not sell secondary sources or editorial annotations. It is also not a substitute for a paid citator.

Who it tends to fit

  • Solo practitioners and small firms that need free access to case law
  • Developers who need an open API over court data
  • Researchers and journalists working with public court records

Who it tends not to fit

  • Firms that need secondary sources, treatises, or editorial annotations
  • Firms that need a commercial citator with editorial treatment analysis
  • Firms that need a vendor contract and support relationship

What to ask before you buy

  1. What is the coverage for my jurisdiction, and how quickly are new opinions added?
  2. What are the API rate limits for the volume my firm needs?
  3. How does the citation lookup compare to the citator my firm already uses?
  4. What is the sustainability model, given the service is free?

Limits in the record

  • The service is free and non-profit, so the record does not treat it as a commercial product with a support contract.
  • Coverage and update speed vary by court, which a firm should check for its own jurisdictions.
  • The checked pages do not publish a data-handling statement, which is less relevant for a public-records service but still worth noting.

How it sits in Legal research

This is the only free, non-profit option in the category. It competes on access and openness rather than on the editorial depth the commercial platforms sell.

Reading the vendor’s wording

The service is built on public court records and states that it is sponsored by the non-profit Free Law Project. Because the underlying material is public, the confidentiality question is different from a commercial platform holding firm work product. The checked pages do not publish a data-handling statement.

How to evaluate it in a trial

  1. Check coverage and update speed for the courts your firm actually uses.
  2. Compare the citation lookup against the citator you already trust on a case you know well.
  3. Review the API rate limits if you plan to build an integration.
  4. Confirm the sustainability model, since a free service depends on donations and grants.

What adopting it costs

The switching cost is very low, because there is no subscription and the data is public. The relevant cost is any integration built against the API.

Closest alternative

Fastcase — The closest alternative. Both offer broad U.S. case-law access; Fastcase is a commercial library now inside the vLex and Clio group, while this one is free and non-profit.

The same kind of tool, so you can compare before you commit to one.

Tools in other categories that share a practice area with CourtListener. Most firms need more than one product, so this is the rest of the workflow.

All Legal research tools →Alternatives page →Compare with PACER →Back to the directory →

The record

Everything below is a dated observation from the vendor’s own published material. Each line links to the page it came from so you can confirm it yourself.

What we verified

Vendor
Free Law Project. Observed September 21, 2026 · Vendor page ↗
Price path
Contact sales: No public price was located in the checked vendor source. Observed September 21, 2026 · Source ↗
What it does
General practice. CourtListener presents a free legal research website containing millions of legal opinions from federal and state courts, sponsored by the non-profit Free Law Project. Observed September 21, 2026 · Source ↗
Firm-size scope
Not stated. Observed September 21, 2026 · Checked page ↗
Connections
Not stated. Observed September 21, 2026 · Checked page ↗
Data location
Not stated. Observed September 21, 2026 · Source ↗
Open the vendor page ↗