---
title: "Search US federal court dockets - civil and criminal - from..."
method: GET
path: "/api/law/docket-search"
tags: ["law"]
---

# Search US federal court dockets - civil and criminal - from...

`GET /api/law/docket-search`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://2s.io`
- URL: `https://2s.io/api/law/docket-search`
- Auth: API key in header `PAYMENT-SIGNATURE`

Search US federal court dockets — civil and criminal — from the RECAP/PACER archive. Full-text q (case name, party, e.g. "United States v. Bankman-Fried"), optional court (CourtListener court id like "cand", "nysd", "ca9"), filedAfter/filedBefore (YYYY-MM-DD), page. Or pass docketNumber (+ court) for exact lookup. Each docket: id, case name, court, docket number, date filed/terminated, nature of suit, assigned judge, public docket URL. Criminal-case research, litigation monitoring, KYC/due-diligence. Sibling endpoints: /api/law/case-search (opinions full-text), /api/law/opinion (full opinion text).

## Query parameters

- `q` string
- `court` string
- `docketNumber` string
- `filedAfter` string
- `filedBefore` string
- `page` integer
- `trial` 1

## Other responses

- `200` (unresolved $ref)
- `400`: Invalid request — not charged. error.code: BAD_REQUEST or INVALID_PARAM (parameter validation; error.details.issues lists each problem), MALFORMED_JSON, or a request-specific code. Other client errors: 405 METHOD_NOT_ALLOWED (wrong verb; see the Allow header), 413 PAYLOAD_TOO_LARGE.
- `402`: Payment required. Body is the x402 PaymentRequirements envelope with a multi-network accepts array; the per-call price is in accepts[].amount (and on the operation as x-2s-price). Sign for whichever rail you hold USDC on (EIP-3009 for Base, partial SPL transfer for Solana) and retry with the PAYMENT-SIGNATURE header (X-PAYMENT also accepted for v1 clients). Also PAYMENT_SETTLE_FAILED (error envelope) when a verified payment failed to settle: error.details.chargeStatus is "not_charged" (retry with a fresh payment) or "unknown" (the authorization may still settle before its deadline — check it before retrying).
- `429`: Too many requests — RATE_LIMITED: our per-IP / per-payer limiter. Not charged; retry after Retry-After.
- `5XX`: Server-side failure. 500 INTERNAL: unexpected error; quote error.errorId (also the X-2s-Error-Id header). 502 UPSTREAM_UNAVAILABLE (or another UPSTREAM_* code): the data provider failed — composite endpoints refuse unbilled when every source fails. 503 SERVICE_PAUSED: endpoint paused by the operator kill switch, retry after Retry-After; 503 SPEND_CAP: daily upstream budget exhausted. 504 UPSTREAM_TIMEOUT. Not charged.

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/2s-io/apis/2s-the-most-everything-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/2s-io/apis/2s-the-most-everything-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/2s-io/apis/2s-the-most-everything-api/revisions/da4c5caf686e?raw)