CourtListener

CourtListener on xpay — Legal research and case law search without the signup friction

CourtListener is the largest free legal research database in the US, covering opinions, dockets, and PACER filings across federal and state courts. Developers and legal AI agents use it to find precedents, analyze case outcomes, track judge behavior, and validate citations—all critical for building legal research tools, compliance systems, and case strategy platforms. On xpay, you get CourtListener's full API surface as MCP-callable tools, billed per invocation with no subscription or per-provider account setup.

What's available

• search_cases_by_problem — Extract legal keywords from a problem description and find relevant cases. Ideal for precedent discovery when you have a fact pattern but need the case law.
• get_case_details — Retrieve full opinion text, legal reasoning, and metadata for a specific case. Use this to deep-dive into precedent analysis and extract holdings.
• find_similar_precedents — Locate cases with analogous legal reasoning or outcomes to a reference case. Essential for comparative legal research.
• analyze_case_outcomes — Study outcome patterns across similar cases to forecast success likelihood. Useful for litigation strategy and risk assessment.
• get_judge_analysis — Examine a judge's historical rulings on similar issues. Helps predict judicial behavior and inform strategic decisions.
• validate_citations — Verify legal citations and discover related cases. Ensures citations are current and expands your case law network.
• get_procedural_requirements — Find filing rules, procedural deadlines, and jurisdiction-specific requirements for any case type.
• track_legal_trends — Identify emerging patterns in recent cases on a given topic. Useful for spotting shifts in judicial interpretation.
• search_pacer_dockets — Query federal court dockets from PACER via CourtListener's RECAP Archive. Find active and terminated cases with party, attorney, and filing details.
• get_docket_entries — Retrieve detailed docket entries, filings, and orders for a specific case (premium access required).
• search_parties_attorneys — Search for parties and attorneys across PACER cases. Track representation patterns and attorney success rates.
• analyze_case_timeline — Analyze case progression from docket entries, tracking delays and activity patterns (premium access required).

When CourtListener is the right tool

• You're building a legal research assistant or case law search feature and need authoritative US court data.
• You need to find precedents quickly based on a fact pattern or legal issue.
• You're analyzing judge behavior or court trends to inform litigation strategy.
• You're validating legal citations or building a citation graph.
• You need PACER docket data without managing a PACER subscription yourself.
• You're tracking procedural requirements across multiple jurisdictions.
• You want to predict case outcomes based on historical patterns.

When to choose something else

• You need international case law or non-US legal research—CourtListener focuses on US courts.
• You require real-time stock market data, financial news, or non-legal content—use Tavily or similar web search APIs instead.
• You need statutory text or legislative history—consider specialized legal databases like LexisNexis or Westlaw (not available on xpay).
• Your use case requires live PACER access with premium features beyond CourtListener's RECAP Archive—you may need direct PACER credentials.
• You're doing bulk legal document processing at massive scale—check CourtListener's rate limits and consider a direct enterprise agreement.

Pricing snapshot

All CourtListener tools on xpay are priced at $0.01 per call. This covers searches, detail lookups, analysis, and docket queries. No subscription, no monthly minimum—you pay only for what you invoke.

Quickstart

Install the CourtListener MCP in Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http courtlistener "https://courtlistener.mcp.xpay.sh/mcp?key=YOUR_XPAY_KEY"

Replace YOUR_XPAY_KEY with your xpay API key (get one free at https://xpay.tools after email or Google signup).

Once connected, Claude Code will expose CourtListener's tools by their native names. You can ask Claude to "search for cases about patent infringement" and it will call search_cases_by_problem with the appropriate keywords. Each invocation is billed at $0.01.

Alternatively, use the unified xpay endpoint to access all providers (CourtListener, Tavily, Apollo, etc.) through one MCP connection:

claude mcp add --transport http xpay "https://mcp.xpay.sh/mcp?key=YOUR_XPAY_KEY"

With the unified endpoint, you'll use xpay_run("courtlistener/search_cases_by_problem", {...}) to invoke tools.

For Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, or VS Code with Copilot, add a server entry to your mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "courtlistener": {
      "url": "https://courtlistener.mcp.xpay.sh/mcp?key=YOUR_XPAY_KEY"
    }
  }
}

Why route CourtListener through xpay?

• No CourtListener account needed. xpay holds the upstream credentials; you authenticate once with your xpay API key and gain instant access to CourtListener's full API.
• Pay per call, not per month. At $0.01 per invocation, you're billed only for what you use. Ideal for prototyping, low-volume research, or integrating legal search into an agent without committing to a subscription.
• MCP-native integration. CourtListener tools appear as first-class MCP resources in Claude Code, Cursor, and other MCP-compatible IDEs. No custom HTTP client code needed.
• Unified billing across providers. If you also use Tavily, Apollo, or other xpay providers, all calls bill to one xpay account with a single invoice.
• Instant activation. Sign up, get your API key, and start calling CourtListener tools within minutes. No waiting for provider approval or managing separate credentials.