`search_court_filings`

Pack: court-listener · Connect: https://pipeworx.io/mcp (see Connect below for a single-pack URL)

No MCP client? Call it directly: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_court_filings for the schema, then POST the same URL with its arguments for the data.

US federal court filings — complaints, motions, orders — matching a text search, from PACER/RECAP.

Tool description as the model sees it

Search the TEXT of US federal court filings — complaints, motions, briefs, orders and exhibits from PACER as archived in RECAP, roughly 9.7 million documents. Use this to find what was actually argued or ordered in litigation (“trade secret misappropriation”, a company named as a defendant, a specific contract term), as opposed to the appellate opinions that search_case_law covers. Returns the filing description as the clerk wrote it, the filing date, a matching text excerpt, a PDF link where the document is held, and the docket_id to read the rest of that case with list_docket_filings. Quote a phrase to search it exactly.

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`query`	string	yes	Search text. Quote a phrase for an exact match.
`court`	string	no	Optional court code to narrow to, e.g. “cand” or “txsd”.
`limit`	number	no	Maximum filings to return (default 20).

Example call

Arguments

{
  "query": "\"trade secret misappropriation\"",
  "limit": 3
}

curl

curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/court-listener/mcp \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"search_court_filings","arguments":{"query":"\"trade secret misappropriation\"","limit":3}}}'

TypeScript (@pipeworx/sdk)

import { Pipeworx } from '@pipeworx/sdk';
const pipeworx = new Pipeworx();

const result = await pipeworx.call('search_court_filings', {
  "query": "\"trade secret misappropriation\"",
  "limit": 3
});

Connect

Add this to your MCP client config — every tool in the catalog, including this one — or use one-click install buttons:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pipeworx": {
      "url": "https://pipeworx.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Connect to just the court-listener pack

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "court-listener": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/court-listener/mcp"
    }
  }
}

See Getting Started for client-specific install steps.

search_court_filings