PACER Case Locator (PCL) website screenshot

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) publishes 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 3 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub
18.0/100 emerging ▬ flat Agent 3/100 human only Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6
AccessFreemium
1 APIs
CourtsFederal CasesGovernmentLegal

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6
Composite quality — 18.0/100 · emerging
Contract Quality 0.0 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 2.2 / 20
Commercial Clarity 7.9 / 20
Operational Transparency 4.1 / 13
Governance 0.0 / 12
Discoverability 5.0 / 10
Agent readiness — 3/100 · human only
Machine-Readable Contract 0 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 0 / 10
MCP Server 0 / 12
Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 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
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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.

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 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Contact
Contact

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Website
Website
 Blog
Blog

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
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
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Freemium
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  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: Consumer
access: 3rd-Party
specificationVersion: '0.19'
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: 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