OpenLaws

OpenLaws is a Public Benefit Corporation that provides programmatic access to U.S. law text — federal and state statutes, regulations, constitutions, and case law — through a unified Legal Data API. The platform exposes keyword and citation search, hierarchical division retrieval, historical versions with redline comparisons, citation parsing and validation, and deep links to authoritative government sources. Coverage spans 53 U.S. jurisdictions (50 states + D.C. + Puerto Rico + Federal) with more than 4.3 million law sections under a single data model, targeted at RegTech, LegalTech, GRC / IRM, generative AI / RAG, and legal research workloads.

OpenLaws publishes 5 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network, including Courts API, Jurisdictions API, Law Divisions API, and 2 more. Tagged areas include Legal, Law, Statutes, Regulations, and Constitutions.

The OpenLaws catalog on APIs.io includes 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

OpenLaws’ developer surface includes authentication, documentation, getting-started guide, signup flow, changelog, and 9 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

33.0/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 46/100 agent ready Front door AI 5/6 prominent saas Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0 · Show this score on your site →

AccessFreemiumSelf serve⚡ Free to try

1 published contract 1 MCP Servers

Legal LawStatutesRegulationsConstitutionsCase Law Citations Search RAG Legal Tech RegTech Compliance GRC Government Data

What this lets a business do 1

Business capabilities this provider's published APIs can perform, derived from its own contracts. Browse all capabilities →

Data & Reference Information Services

AE-230

Law DivisionsLaws

GET /api/v1/jurisdictions/{jurisdiction_key}/laws/{law_key}/divisions GET /api/v1/jurisdictions/{jurisdiction_key}/laws

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0

Composite quality — 33.0/100 · thin

Contract Quality 10.7 / 21

Developer Ergonomics 3.6 / 17

Access Clarity 5.4 / 17

Operational Transparency 0.9 / 11

Contract Governance 1.4 / 10

Discoverability 5.8 / 9

Regulatory Posture 2.4 / 15

Agent readiness — 46/100 · agent ready

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 6 / 6

MCP Server 12 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 9 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 7 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 4 / 4

Delegated User Identity 6 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 5 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Pagination 5 / 5

Distinct Operations 0 / 3

MCP Tool Quality 6 / 6

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Government & Public Sector regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.

Create-or-Update Ergonomics does not apply to this provider. The published contracts declare no write operations, and a read-only API cannot create-or-update. The facet is excluded from this provider's denominator entirely — not scored zero. A reference or data API is not deficient for being unable to upsert.

The six quality facets above are damped to 85 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 15. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 85% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

Show this score on your site.

It updates itself when the score changes. Paste this where you link to your API docs:

<a href="https://apis.io/providers/openlaws/"><img src="https://apis.io/badge/openlaws/card.svg" alt="OpenLaws on APIs.io — Kin Score by API Evangelist"></a>

Other styles, a README pill and a shields.io endpoint are on the badge page.

Raise your score.

Agent readiness — checks not met, largest first (exact, from this profile):

Stable Error Semantics +8 pts — OpenAPI $refs a shared error schema across 4xx/5xx responses (verified), else common[].type includes ErrorCatalog / ErrorCodes / DeclineCodes
A2A Agent Card +8 pts — a2a/-a2a.yml manifest, graded on conformance.grade against A2A 1.0.0
Registration Without a Human +6 pts — a `registration_endpoint` in the served RFC 8414 / OIDC discovery document
Typed Event Surface +6 pts — AsyncAPI document, OR webhooks/callbacks objects in the as-published OpenAPI, OR common[].type includes Webhooks
Agent Skills +5 pts — skills artifact present, graded by who authored it
Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document +5 pts — a parsing /.well-known/ucp.json or acp.json declaring a version and at least one service, OR (0.27) a live x402 payment challenge from _data/x402-adoption.json — `self` when its endpoints are on the provider's own domain, `platform` when they are on a vendor's

3 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.

Kin Score — facets with the most composite points still available (weight × headroom):

Developer Ergonomics scores 21.4 — up to +15.7 composite points
Access Clarity scores 31.6 — up to +13.7 composite points
Contract Quality scores 50.3 — up to +12.4 composite points

Each check links to what satisfies it. Publish the artifact, or tell us where it already lives, and the score moves on the next scoring run.

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from the provider profile at artifacts.apis.io/openlaws/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/openlaws to ask a question or point us at an artifact you publish. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

Standards implemented 3

Standards this provider implements or carries. De facto ones are profiled and measured by the API Commons; formal ones come from the standards directory and are linked by the provider's own tags. The evidence column says how each claim was established — not that it was made.

Model Context Protocol (MCP)

measured — observed by APIs.io (verified)

OAuth 2.0 Protected Resource Metadata

measured — observed by APIs.io (verified)

OpenAPI

measured — observed by APIs.io (published)

APIs 5

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

OpenLaws Courts API

Courts issue Opinions and belong to a Jurisdiction.

OpenLaws Jurisdictions API

All data (statutes, regulations, caselaw opinions) in OpenLaws are organized into jurisdictions. This allows you to scope searches and lookups to a specific state or federal jur...

OpenLaws Law Divisions API

Divisions represent the hierarchical documents that make up statutes, regulations, and constitutions. Each document has a 'path' which uniquely identifies the document and where...

OpenLaws Laws API

Laws represent a specific law type in a Jurisdiction. For example, Code of Federal Regulations belongs to the FED Jurisdiction and is represented by the law_key `FED-CFR`. Flori...

OpenLaws Opinions API

Opinions represent published and unpublished case law opinions. Opinions belong to a Court and Jurisdiction.

Open Collections 6

Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).

OpenLaws API Documentation Courts API

OPEN COLLECTION

OpenLaws API Documentation Courts Jurisdictions API

OPEN COLLECTION

OpenLaws API Documentation Courts Law Divisions API

OPEN COLLECTION

OpenLaws API Documentation Courts Laws API

OPEN COLLECTION

OpenLaws API Documentation Courts Opinions API

OPEN COLLECTION

OpenLaws API Documentation

OPEN COLLECTION

MCP Servers 1

Model Context Protocol servers that expose these APIs to AI agents.

OpenLaws MCP Server

Remote MCP server at mcp.openlaws.us over HTTP.

MCP SERVER

OpenLaws API pricing

Not yet checked against OpenLaws's own pricing page. Compiled by API Evangelist on 2026-05-04; confirm before you rely on a figure. A free plan or tier is listed.

Plan	Price
Free freemium	Free
Professional paid	Free
Enterprise enterprise	—

Plan details, limits and sources →

Rate limits

Free Tier Default: 10 requests per minute
Free Tier Monthly Quota: 1000 requests per month
Professional Tier Default: 100 requests per minute

Compiled by API Evangelist, not yet checked against OpenLaws's documentation. All 5 limits →

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Openlaws Plans Pricing

3 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Openlaws Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

Service Levels 1

Uptime the provider promises or reports, as SLA4OAI. Read from its own pages; APIs.io runs no monitors.

OpenLaws

SLA

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Openlaws Finops

FINOPS

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

OpenLaws API Rules

69 rules · 66 errors 1 warnings 2 info

SPECTRAL

Security Posture 2

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Openlaws Authentication

http · 1 scheme

SECURITY

Openlaws Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Openlaws Agentic Access

28 operations

28 operations · 0 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Get Started 2

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

GettingStarted

GettingStarted

Signup

Signup

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

Operate 3

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

ChangeLog

ChangeLog

ContactEmail

ContactEmail

RateLimits

RateLimits

Commercial 3

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

TermsOfService

TermsOfService

Plans

Plans

FinOps

FinOps

Company 1

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

CapabilityMap

CapabilityMap

Source (apis.yml)

aid: openlaws
name: OpenLaws
description: OpenLaws is a Public Benefit Corporation that provides programmatic access to U.S. law text — federal and state
  statutes, regulations, constitutions, and case law — through a unified Legal Data API. The platform exposes keyword and
  citation search, hierarchical division retrieval, historical versions with redline comparisons, citation parsing and validation,
  and deep links to authoritative government sources. Coverage spans 53 U.S. jurisdictions (50 states + D.C. + Puerto Rico
  + Federal) with more than 4.3 million law sections under a single data model, targeted at RegTech, LegalTech, GRC / IRM,
  generative AI / RAG, and legal research workloads.
type: Index
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  open_source: false
  commercial: true
  callable_host: true
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: high
  source:
  - openapi
  - pricing
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: false
  gated: none
  gated_source:
  - onboarding
  label: Freemium · Self-serve signup
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  - security
  generated: '2026-11-06'
  method: derived
position: Consuming
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/openlaws.png
x-docs-platform: scalar
x-docs-platform-confidence: medium
x-docs-platform-checked: 2026-10-04
tags:
- Legal
- Law
- Statutes
- Regulations
- Constitutions
- Case Law
- Citations
- Search
- RAG
- Legal Tech
- RegTech
- Compliance
- GRC
- Government Data
tags_raw:
- Legal
- Law
- Statutes
- Regulations
- Constitutions
- Case Law
- Citations
- Search
- RAG
- LegalTech
- RegTech
- Compliance
- GRC
- Government Data
created: '2025-03-01'
modified: '2026-05-21'
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/openlaws/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
specificationVersion: '0.23'
apis:
- aid: openlaws:openlaws-courts-api
  name: OpenLaws Courts API
  description: Courts issue Opinions and belong to a Jurisdiction.
  humanURL: https://openlaws.us/api/
  baseURL: https://api.openlaws.us
  tags:
  - Courts
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/openlaws-courts-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com
  - type: HumanURL
    url: https://openlaws.us/api/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com/guide/openlaws-legal-data-api
  - type: Signup
    url: https://1be187uhimk.typeform.com/to/PwYQaCu4
  - type: ChangeLog
    url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com/guide/release-notes
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://openlaws.us/terms
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/openlaws-plans-pricing.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/openlaws-rate-limits.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/openlaws-finops.yml
- aid: openlaws:openlaws-jurisdictions-api
  name: OpenLaws Jurisdictions API
  description: All data (statutes, regulations, caselaw opinions) in OpenLaws are organized into jurisdictions. This allows
    you to scope searches and lookups to a specific state or federal jurisdiction (or both).
  humanURL: https://openlaws.us/api/
  baseURL: https://api.openlaws.us
  tags:
  - Jurisdictions
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/openlaws-jurisdictions-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com
  - type: HumanURL
    url: https://openlaws.us/api/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com/guide/openlaws-legal-data-api
  - type: Signup
    url: https://1be187uhimk.typeform.com/to/PwYQaCu4
  - type: ChangeLog
    url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com/guide/release-notes
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://openlaws.us/terms
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/openlaws-plans-pricing.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/openlaws-rate-limits.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/openlaws-finops.yml
- aid: openlaws:openlaws-law-divisions-api
  name: OpenLaws Law Divisions API
  description: Divisions represent the hierarchical documents that make up statutes, regulations, and constitutions. Each
    document has a 'path' which uniquely identifies the document and where it resides in the hierarchy of the law.
  humanURL: https://openlaws.us/api/
  baseURL: https://api.openlaws.us
  tags:
  - Law Divisions
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/openlaws-law-divisions-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com
  - type: HumanURL
    url: https://openlaws.us/api/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com/guide/openlaws-legal-data-api
  - type: Signup
    url: https://1be187uhimk.typeform.com/to/PwYQaCu4
  - type: ChangeLog
    url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com/guide/release-notes
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://openlaws.us/terms
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/openlaws-plans-pricing.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/openlaws-rate-limits.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/openlaws-finops.yml
- aid: openlaws:openlaws-laws-api
  name: OpenLaws Laws API
  description: Laws represent a specific law type in a Jurisdiction. For example, Code of Federal Regulations belongs to the
    FED Jurisdiction and is represented by the law_key `FED-CFR`. Florida Statutes belongs to the FL Jurisdiction and is represented
    by the law_key `FL-STAT`. Note that case law and case opinions are represented as Opinions that belong to Courts and Jurisdictions
    rather than Laws.
  humanURL: https://openlaws.us/api/
  baseURL: https://api.openlaws.us
  tags:
  - Laws
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/openlaws-laws-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com
  - type: HumanURL
    url: https://openlaws.us/api/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com/guide/openlaws-legal-data-api
  - type: Signup
    url: https://1be187uhimk.typeform.com/to/PwYQaCu4
  - type: ChangeLog
    url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com/guide/release-notes
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://openlaws.us/terms
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/openlaws-plans-pricing.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/openlaws-rate-limits.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/openlaws-finops.yml
- aid: openlaws:openlaws-opinions-api
  name: OpenLaws Opinions API
  description: Opinions represent published and unpublished case law opinions. Opinions belong to a Court and Jurisdiction.
  humanURL: https://openlaws.us/api/
  baseURL: https://api.openlaws.us
  tags:
  - Opinions
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/openlaws-opinions-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com
  - type: HumanURL
    url: https://openlaws.us/api/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com/guide/openlaws-legal-data-api
  - type: Signup
    url: https://1be187uhimk.typeform.com/to/PwYQaCu4
  - type: ChangeLog
    url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com/guide/release-notes
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://openlaws.us/terms
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/openlaws-plans-pricing.yml
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/openlaws-rate-limits.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/openlaws-finops.yml
common:
- type: CapabilityMap
  url: capabilities/openlaws-capability-edges.yml
  name: OpenLaws Business Capability Map
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/openlaws-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/openlaws-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/openlaws-authentication.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://openlaws.us/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com
- type: GettingStarted
  url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com/guide/openlaws-legal-data-api
- type: Signup
  url: https://1be187uhimk.typeform.com/to/PwYQaCu4
- type: ChangeLog
  url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com/guide/release-notes
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://openlaws.us/terms
- type: ContactEmail
  url: mailto:team@openlaws.us
- type: Plans
  url: plans/openlaws-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/openlaws-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/openlaws-finops.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com

OpenLaws API — frequently asked questions

Does OpenLaws have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 5 APIs from OpenLaws, including OpenLaws Courts API, OpenLaws Jurisdictions API and OpenLaws Law Divisions API, and 2 more.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the OpenLaws API?

Yes. APIs.io indexes 5 OpenAPI specifications for OpenLaws, each linked for download from this page.

How do I authenticate with the OpenLaws API?

OpenLaws documents its authentication (http · 1 scheme). The details are profiled on APIs.io as Openlaws Authentication.

How much does the OpenLaws API cost?

APIs.io lists 3 pricing plans for OpenLaws, with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing on this page.

Does OpenLaws have an MCP server?

Yes. APIs.io lists 1 MCP server for OpenLaws: Remote MCP server at mcp.openlaws.us over HTTP.

Is the OpenLaws API ready for AI agents?

OpenLaws has a Kin Score of 33.0 out of 100 (thin) and an Agent Readiness score of 46.4 (agent-ready), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.

Work with this as data

Every provider here is available over the APIs.io API and to AI agents over MCP.

MCP server

One button, every client — Claude, Cursor, VS Code and the rest.

https://apis.io/mcp

Tools for providers

9 MCP tools reach this

find_providersBrowse and filter every provider in the catalog.
get_provider_artifactsEvery artifact this provider publishes, grouped by type.
get_provider_operationsEvery operation across all of their OpenAPIs — one call instead of parsing every spec.
get_provider_toolsEvery MCP tool they ship, with the operation each wraps.
get_provider_evidenceHow each part of their score was established. Free — the basis for a claim should not sit behind it.
get_provider_ratingPRO — composite, band, trend and facet scores.
apis_io_searchSTART HERE — APIs, providers and tags for one query, each with its total.
resolveTurn a domain, URL or GitHub org into the provider it belongs to.
find_cohortsEvery scored population of providers in the catalog.

All 92 tools →

Call it yourself

curl for this page

This provider

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers/openlaws"

All providers

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers?limit=25"

Every operation they expose

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers/openlaws/operations?limit=25"

How their score was established

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers/openlaws/evidence"

Calls without X-API-Key need no key. Calls with it need a paid plan — get a key.

Get an API key

Free tier, no form to fill in. Signing in shares your email address with us — we store it to create your key and to recognise you if you sign in with another provider. See our Privacy Policy and Terms.

GitHub Google LinkedIn

A second provider on the same verified email joins the account you already have.