PACER Case Locator (PCL)

The PACER Case Locator (PCL) is a nationwide index of federal court cases. The public PCL API allows users to programmatically search the PCL for federal cases across U.S. district, bankruptcy, and appellate courts using the same search functionality and dataset as the PCL web application.

PACER Case Locator (PCL) is listed with 1 API on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include Courts, Federal Cases, Government, and Legal.

PACER Case Locator (PCL)’s developer surface includes documentation, engineering blog, and 6 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

12.0/100 emerging ▬ flat Agent 3/100 human only Front door AI 1/6 silent Heartbeat 67/100 slowing Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0 · Show this score on your site →

AccessFreemium

1 API

CourtsFederal CasesGovernment Legal

Kin Score

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

Composite quality — 12.0/100 · emerging

Contract Quality 0.0 / 21

Developer Ergonomics 4.0 / 17

Access Clarity 1.3 / 17

Operational Transparency 0.9 / 11

Contract Governance 0.0 / 10

Discoverability 4.1 / 9

Regulatory Posture 1.8 / 15

Agent readiness — 3/100 · human only

Machine-Readable Contract 0 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 0 / 10

Documented Reversibility 0 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 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 0 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Pagination 5 / 5

Distinct Operations 3 / 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 could not be measured. We hold no machine-readable contract for this provider to read, so there is nothing to measure a write surface against. Excluded rather than scored zero: never-measured and measured-empty are different facts. Publishing an OpenAPI is what makes this facet — and several others — scorable at all.

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/.

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

Machine-Readable Contract +18 pts — api_specs includes an OpenAPI document
MCP Server +12 pts — deployment.mode + probe verdict on the mcp/ manifest, not the pointer; an unprobed slug falls back to authorship
Agentic Access Contract +10 pts — agentic_access artifact present (x-agentic-access), graded by author
Idempotency +9 pts — OpenAPI mutating operations declare an idempotency key — a header, a request-body property, or a named de-duplication token whose own description says so (verified); else common[].type matches /idempoten/i (documented)
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

11 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.

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

Contract Quality scores 0.0 — up to +25.0 composite points
Access Clarity scores 7.9 — up to +18.4 composite points
Developer Ergonomics scores 23.8 — up to +15.2 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/pacer-case-locator-pcl-/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/pacer-case-locator-pcl- 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 →

APIs 1

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

PACER Case Locator (PCL) API

The PACER Case Locator (PCL) API allows users to programmatically search the nationwide index of federal court cases for U.S. district, bankruptcy, and appellate courts.

PACER Case Locator (PCL) API pricing

Not yet checked against PACER Case Locator (PCL)'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 PACER Case Locator (PCL)'s documentation. All 5 limits →

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Pacer Case Locator Pcl Plans Pricing

3 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Pacer Case Locator Pcl Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

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

Pacer Case Locator Pcl Finops

FINOPS

Security Posture 1

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

Pacer Case Locator Pcl Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC

SECURITY

Resources

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Access & Security 1

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Operate 2

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

RateLimits

RateLimits

Contact

Contact

Commercial 2

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Plans

Plans

FinOps

FinOps

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Blog

Blog

Source (apis.yml)

aid: pacer-case-locator-pcl-
name: PACER Case Locator (PCL)
description: The PACER Case Locator (PCL) is a nationwide index of federal court cases. The public PCL API allows users to
  programmatically search the PCL for federal cases across U.S. district, bankruptcy, and appellate courts using the same
  search functionality and dataset as the PCL web application.
type: Index
deliveryModel:
  model: unknown
  open_source: false
  commercial: false
  callable_host: false
  label: Delivery model not determined — needs a product licence on record
  confidence: low
  source:
  - none
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Freemium
  confidence: low
  source:
  - plans
  - security
  generated: '2026-11-06'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/pacer-case-locator-pcl-.png
tags:
- Courts
- Federal Cases
- Government
- Legal
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/pacer-case-locator-pcl-/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2024-11-20'
modified: '2026-04-28'
position: Consuming
access: 3rd-Party
specificationVersion: '0.23'
apis:
- aid: pacer-case-locator-pcl-:pacer-case-locator-pcl-
  name: PACER Case Locator (PCL) API
  description: The PACER Case Locator (PCL) API allows users to programmatically search the nationwide index of federal court
    cases for U.S. district, bankruptcy, and appellate courts.
  humanURL: https://pacer.uscourts.gov/file-case/developer-resources
  tags:
  - Courts
  - Federal Cases
  - Legal
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://pacer.uscourts.gov/file-case/developer-resources
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://pacer.uscourts.gov/help/pacer/pacer-authentication-api-user-guide
  - type: Contact
    url: mailto:developers@psc.uscourts.gov
common:
- type: Plans
  url: plans/pacer-case-locator-pcl--plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/pacer-case-locator-pcl--rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/pacer-case-locator-pcl--finops.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/pacer-case-locator-pcl--domain-security.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://pacer.uscourts.gov
- type: Documentation
  url: https://pacer.uscourts.gov/file-case/developer-resources
- type: Contact
  url: mailto:developers@psc.uscourts.gov
- url: https://pacer.uscourts.gov/rss.xml
  type: Blog
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com

PACER Case Locator (PCL) API — frequently asked questions

Does PACER Case Locator (PCL) have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 1 API from PACER Case Locator (PCL), including PACER Case Locator (PCL) API.

How do I authenticate with the PACER Case Locator (PCL) API?

PACER Case Locator (PCL) uses bearer-token authentication.

How much does the PACER Case Locator (PCL) API cost?

APIs.io lists 3 pricing plans for PACER Case Locator (PCL), with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing on this page.

Is the PACER Case Locator (PCL) API ready for AI agents?

PACER Case Locator (PCL) has a Kin Score of 12.0 out of 100 (emerging) and an Agent Readiness score of 3.1 (human-only), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.

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