pacersdk

A Python SDK for interacting with the PACER Case Locator (PCL) API.

What is PACER?

PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) is a service of the U.S. federal judiciary that provides electronic public access to federal appellate, district, and bankruptcy court records. It allows users to search and retrieve case and docket information filed in federal courts.

Key features of PACER include:

  • Nationwide access to court records across all U.S. federal courts.

  • Case indexing and search through the PACER Case Locator (PCL).

  • Document retrieval for pleadings, motions, orders, and opinions.

  • Fee-based system with exemptions for low-usage access and QA environments.

The PACER Case Locator (PCL) offers a consolidated, searchable index of court cases and is now accessible via a public RESTful API. This SDK simplifies interacting with that API from Python applications.

PACER QA Environment

For testing purposes, a separate PACER QA environment is available. It contains test data and does not incur billing. We strongly recommend using it during development.

Resources

Contents

Tutorials:

Library Reference:

Project Information: