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name: "free-law" description: "Researching US federal and state court decisions without a paid subscription; looking up PACER filings, docket numbers, or judge records; bulk case..."

Free Law Project (CourtListener) — Free US Legal Research

When to activate

Researching US federal and state court decisions without a paid subscription; looking up PACER filings, docket numbers, or judge records; bulk case law lookups where a paid service would be cost-prohibitive; open-access legal research for academic or public interest work.

When NOT to use

Research requiring secondary sources (law review analysis, Practical Law guidance notes, Westlaw headnotes) — use Thomson Reuters MCP for those; research outside US federal courts where CourtListener coverage is sparse or absent; time-sensitive work requiring guaranteed same-day opinion coverage (some recent opinions have publication delays).

Instructions

What it is: Free Law Project runs CourtListener — the largest free, open-access US legal database. The MCP integration (May 2026) requires no subscription, no API key purchase, and no per-query billing.

Coverage:

• Federal circuit and district court opinions (comprehensive)
• US Supreme Court opinions (comprehensive)
• PACER filings and docket data (federal courts)
• Judge biographical records, recusal history, financial disclosures
• Oral argument audio recordings (where available)
• State court coverage varies significantly by state — verify before relying on state court completeness

Rate limits: Free tier is rate-limited. Structure queries to be specific and targeted — avoid rapid-fire broad queries. Batch related lookups into single requests where possible.

Query types:

Case search by keyword:

Find 9th Circuit opinions from 2023-2026 involving AI-generated content
and copyright infringement. Return citations and a one-paragraph holding summary.

Citation lookup:

Retrieve the full text of Twitter, Inc. v. Taamneh, 598 U.S. 471 (2023).

Judge records:

What cases has Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley decided involving
Section 230 since 2021?

Docket lookup:

Find the current docket for FTC v. Meta Platforms in the Northern
District of California. List pending motions.

Limitations — know before you query:

• US federal courts are the primary strength; state court coverage is inconsistent
• No secondary sources, no law review articles, no Practical Law content
• Some recent opinions have a publication delay (days to weeks)
• Full PACER docket coverage requires a PACER account for some sealed or restricted filings

Pair with Thomson Reuters MCP: CourtListener for free primary source volume + TR MCP for secondary source analysis and Westlaw depth. Example workflow: use CourtListener to identify relevant cases in bulk, then pull Westlaw analysis on the key ones via TR MCP.

MANDATORY output warning — include on every research output:

For research purposes only — verify with licensed counsel before relying on any legal analysis.

Citation format: Always include full citation: case name, volume, reporter, first page, court, year. Example: NetChoice, LLC v. Paxton, 49 F.4th 439 (5th Cir. 2022).

Example

Find all 9th Circuit opinions from 2023-2026 involving AI-generated content
and copyright infringement. Return Bluebook citations and a one-paragraph
summary of each holding.

Claude queries CourtListener via MCP, returns a list of matching opinions with citations and holding summaries, notes which cases have pending cert petitions, and appends the mandatory research disclaimer.

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