Quickstart

The platform has two data domains: court rules (judge and court filing rules for 20 federal district courts and 31 state courts) and enforcement intelligence (privacy enforcement actions from 21 jurisdictions). This quickstart covers court rules via the REST API. For enforcement data, see Enforcement Data and MCP: Enforcement Data. By the end of this quickstart, you will have:

Listed available courts and judges
Retrieved judge-specific filing rules
Run a compliance check against those rules

All from your terminal in under 5 minutes. This guide walks through four calls: discover courts, list judges, get applicable rules, and check a document. All requests require a Bearer token. See Authentication for details.

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

1. See the universe

Start by listing all courts to see what’s available:

curl 'https://api.courtrules.app/api/v1/courts' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

import requests

headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"}
resp = requests.get("https://api.courtrules.app/api/v1/courts", headers=headers)
courts = resp.json()
print(f"{courts['meta']['total_districts']} districts, {courts['meta']['districts_with_data']} with data")

const headers = { Authorization: "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" };
const resp = await fetch("https://api.courtrules.app/api/v1/courts", { headers });
const { courts, meta } = await resp.json();
console.log(`${meta.total_districts} districts, ${meta.districts_with_data} with data`);

Every court is open to any API key. Courts with status: live have rules you can read with /rules and /extracted-rules, state courts included. Compliance checks (step 4) run for edny today; for other courts, /check returns 422 and points you to their rules.

2. List judges in a district

curl 'https://api.courtrules.app/api/v1/judges?district_id=edny' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

resp = requests.get(
    "https://api.courtrules.app/api/v1/judges",
    headers=headers,
    params={"district_id": "edny"},
)
judges = resp.json()
for j in judges["judges"]:
    print(f"{j['name']} - {j['slug']}")

const resp = await fetch("https://api.courtrules.app/api/v1/judges?district_id=edny", { headers });
const { judges } = await resp.json();
judges.forEach((j) => console.log(`${j.name} - ${j.slug}`));

Returns all judges for the district. Use the slug field when calling /rules or /check.

3. Get rules for a judge

curl 'https://api.courtrules.app/api/v1/rules?judge_slug=gary-r-brown&district_id=edny&document_scope=brief_support&motion_type=Rule_56' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

resp = requests.get(
    "https://api.courtrules.app/api/v1/rules",
    headers=headers,
    params={
        "judge_slug": "gary-r-brown",
        "district_id": "edny",
        "document_scope": "brief_support",
        "motion_type": "Rule_56",
    },
)
rules = resp.json()

const resp = await fetch(
  "https://api.courtrules.app/api/v1/rules?" +
    new URLSearchParams({
      judge_slug: "gary-r-brown",
      district_id: "edny",
      document_scope: "brief_support",
      motion_type: "Rule_56",
    }),
  { headers },
);
const { rules } = await resp.json();

Returns the full rule set organized by authority layer: FRCP, Local Rules, and Standing Order.

4. Check a document

Send document metadata to the /check endpoint:

curl -X POST https://api.courtrules.app/api/v1/check \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "judge_slug": "gary-r-brown",
    "district_id": "edny",
    "document_scope": "brief_support",
    "motion_type": "Rule_56",
    "is_pro_se": false,
    "pmc_completed": true,
    "opposing_party_pro_se": false,
    "filing_role": "movant",
    "document": {
      "page_count": 18,
      "word_count": 7200
    }
  }'

resp = requests.post(
    "https://api.courtrules.app/api/v1/check",
    headers=headers,
    json={
        "judge_slug": "gary-r-brown",
        "district_id": "edny",
        "document_scope": "brief_support",
        "motion_type": "Rule_56",
        "is_pro_se": False,
        "pmc_completed": True,
        "opposing_party_pro_se": False,
        "filing_role": "movant",
        "document": {"page_count": 18, "word_count": 7200},
    },
)
result = resp.json()
print(f"Status: {result['summary']['status']}")
for r in result["results"]:
    print(f"  [{r['status']}] {r['message']} ({r['source']})")

const resp = await fetch("https://api.courtrules.app/api/v1/check", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { ...headers, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    judge_slug: "gary-r-brown",
    district_id: "edny",
    document_scope: "brief_support",
    motion_type: "Rule_56",
    is_pro_se: false,
    pmc_completed: true,
    opposing_party_pro_se: false,
    filing_role: "movant",
    document: { page_count: 18, word_count: 7200 },
  }),
});
const { summary, results } = await resp.json();
console.log(`Status: ${summary.status}`);
results.forEach((r) => console.log(`  [${r.status}] ${r.message} (${r.source})`));

Minimal vs. full document input

The document object only requires page_count and word_count. With just these two fields, the API checks:

Page and word limits (judge-specific and local rules)
Courtesy copy requirements
Pre-motion conference requirements
Filing gate and bundling rules

To get structural checks (caption, signature, required sections), provide the optional fields. See Document Structure for the full schema.

Understanding results

Each result has:

Field	Description
`severity`	`CRITICAL`, `WARNING`, or `INFO`
`category`	What kind of rule (e.g. `PAGE_LIMIT`, `CAPTION`, `PMC`)
`message`	Human-readable explanation
`source`	Citation (e.g. `FRCP 10(a)`, `EDNY LR 7.1(c)`, `Brown SO §2.B`)
`status`	`FAIL`, `PASS`, or `ACTION_REQUIRED`

The summary status is:

COMPLIANT: No failures, no action items
REVIEW: No failures, but action items exist (e.g. courtesy copy reminder)
NON_COMPLIANT: At least one FAIL result

Next steps

API Reference: Full endpoint reference with schemas, parameters, and live playground
Same Document, Different Judge: See why the same filing gets different results for different judges
Integration Patterns: How to integrate the API into your application
Building with AI Agents: Use the OpenAPI spec with LLMs

Getting Started

Check Filing Compliance

Monitor Enforcement Actions

Use with AI Agents

1. See the universe

2. List judges in a district

3. Get rules for a judge

4. Check a document

Minimal vs. full document input

Understanding results

Next steps

​1. See the universe

​2. List judges in a district

​3. Get rules for a judge

​4. Check a document

​Minimal vs. full document input

​Understanding results

​Next steps

1. See the universe

2. List judges in a district

3. Get rules for a judge

4. Check a document

Minimal vs. full document input

Understanding results

Next steps