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For courts with compliance profiles (the Eastern District of New York today), every judge is checked against three rule layers: FRCP (15 national rules), Local Rules (district-specific rules), and Standing Orders (judge-specific rules extracted from each judge’s chambers standing order). Every judge profile is verified against the original standing order PDF.

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Three rule layers

Each layer overrides and adds to the one above. FRCP is the national baseline. Local Rules layer on district-specific requirements. Standing Orders are the most specific and carry the highest rejection risk because they’re the hardest to find and track.

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FRCP (applies to every judge)

15 rules covering captions, signatures, privacy redactions, motion content, discovery conferral, and summary judgment requirements. These are national rules, identical regardless of judge or district.

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Local Rules (applies to every judge in the district)

District-specific local rules covering formatting (font, margins, spacing), word limits, filing timing, required documents, and letter motions. The number of local rules varies by district.

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Standing Orders (judge-specific)

Judge-specific rules extracted from individual chambers standing orders. These cover:
  • Page limits: judge-specific page limits that may differ from district word limits
  • Courtesy copies: whether required, format, and timing
  • Pre-motion conferences: whether required before filing, letter format, exemptions
  • Filing gates: whether all papers must be fully briefed before docketing
  • Bundling: whether motion, opposition, and reply must be filed together
  • Briefing schedules: whether changes require court approval

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Court coverage and access

Rules are available for 20 federal district courts and 31 state courts across 16 states. Every API key can query every court.
  • GET /api/v1/courts lists every court we map. Courts with status: live have rules; coming_soon courts are mapped without rules yet.
  • GET /api/v1/judges lists a court’s current roster and marks the judges whose own rules we hold.
  • GET /api/v1/rules returns a judge’s rules. For courts without a compliance profile, that is the court-wide rules plus the judge’s own rules, each with its quoted source text.
  • GET /api/v1/extracted-rules searches and pages rules across every court.
Compliance checks (/check and /classify) need a hand-built compliance profile. The Eastern District of New York has one today; other courts return 422 from those endpoints.

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State courts

State court rules cover 31 high-volume trial courts. Roster entries count judges, and in some courts departments or courtrooms: State court data includes judge rosters, court-wide filing rules, and judge or courtroom procedures, each rule tied to the court’s own source document.

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How this appears in the API

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GET /api/v1/rules

For courts with compliance profiles, returns all three rule layers for a judge, including synthesized standing order rules. For every other court, returns the court-wide rules and the judge’s own rules.

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POST /api/v1/check

Checks a document against all three rule layers: page/word limits, formatting, structural requirements, privacy redactions, PMC requirements, filing gates, bundling, and courtesy copies. Returns 422 for courts without a compliance profile.