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OpenJurist

openjurist.org

Free plan WebAPI
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Spec score 7.4 #21 of 31 in Legal Research Software

What it is

OpenJurist is a free legal-research portal covering United States federal, state and tribal law, including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and U.S. territories. Its collection includes court opinions, the U.S. Code, a multi-source legal dictionary, judges, courts, law schools, founding documents and 304 curated landmark decisions. Case pages provide citation profiles, citation activity over time, appellate history and passages later courts relied on. A free citation checker can verify whether a case exists, remains good law and contains a quoted passage. Other tools present circuit splits by issue, judge records, case status and comparisons between state statutes and federal law. OpenJurist says quotations are checked against source opinions and machine-derived analysis is labeled with links to its methodology. Developers can retrieve JSON through a read-only API for opinions, statutes, dictionary entries, judges, courts and search; low-volume use is free, with no numeric request limit stated. The site can be read without an account. OpenJurist says it is a public research resource, not legal advice, and that its content is not guaranteed to be accurate, complete or adequate.

Spec sheet

What it does
OpenJurist is a free legal-research portal for federal, state, and tribal United States law.Read 8 Oct 2026 · openjurist.org
API
Developers can pull JSON from a read-only API with endpoints for opinions, statutes, dictionary entries, judges, courts, and search.Read 8 Oct 2026 · openjurist.org
Integrations
An MCP endpoint for connecting assistants such as Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Cursor, and Perplexity is listed as coming post-launch.Read 8 Oct 2026 · openjurist.org
Privacy
The site can be read without an account; administrator-only sign-in is available at launch, and server logs include request IP addresses retained as needed for security, error diagnosis, and abuse prevention.Read 8 Oct 2026 · openjurist.org
Accessibility
The site aims to conform to WCAG 2.1 Level AA and lists unaudited areas including bulk data tables, older scanned material, and admin tools.Read 8 Oct 2026 · openjurist.org
API usage limit
The API is free of charge for low-volume use; the page does not state a numeric request limit.Read 8 Oct 2026 · openjurist.org
Audience and disclaimer
OpenJurist describes itself as a public legal-research resource and says its content is not legal advice and is not guaranteed to be accurate, complete, or adequate.Read 8 Oct 2026 · openjurist.org
Case analytics
Case pages provide citation profiles, citations over time, appellate history, and passages later courts rely on.Read 8 Oct 2026 · openjurist.org
Data sharing
OpenJurist says it does not sell personal information or share it for advertising, and identifies Google Analytics and Cloudflare as service providers.Read 8 Oct 2026 · openjurist.org
Other analysis
The site describes circuit splits organized by issue, judge records, case status, and comparisons of state statutes with federal law.Read 8 Oct 2026 · openjurist.org
Planned availability
Bulk data downloads and interactive OpenAPI documentation are listed as coming post-launch.Read 8 Oct 2026 · openjurist.org
Quote verification
The citation checker verifies whether a case exists, whether it is still good law, and whether a quotation appears in it; the checker is free.Read 8 Oct 2026 · openjurist.org
Research corpus
The portal includes court opinions, the U.S. Code, a multi-source legal dictionary, judges, courts, law schools, founding documents, and 304 curated landmark decisions.Read 8 Oct 2026 · openjurist.org
Verification method
OpenJurist says quotations are checked against source opinions and machine-derived analysis is labeled and linked to its methodology.Read 8 Oct 2026 · openjurist.org

Plans and prices

Free access Free Free for low-volume use Read 8 Oct 2026 · openjurist.org

Every OpenJurist plan and price →

Strong points and limits

Strong points

  • Broad U.S. jurisdiction coverage
  • Citation verification tools
  • Case citation and appellate history
  • Read-only JSON API
  • Free low-volume access

Limits

  • No docket search
  • No research alerts
  • Content is not guaranteed complete or accurate

Who it suits

It suits people researching U.S. case law, statutes and citation history, as well as developers using legal-search data through an API. It is not a substitute for legal advice.

Verdict

OpenJurist combines a broad U.S. legal corpus with citation analysis, verification and a developer API. Readers should treat it as a research resource and independently assess information before relying on it.

Where Specifiction places it

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