Public-source legal research in Claude
Source review · Checked . Based on the linked documentation and tool definitions. Examples are illustrative unless a run receipt is provided. Editorial standards
Claude can search public court opinions through ToolRouter Legal Research (case-law). For US results that means CourtListener search hits with a snippet and a URL, not a licensed full-text reporter and not Shepard's or KeyCite. This is software and source selection, not legal advice.
The walkthrough is source-reviewed against the current skill contracts. It is not a live Claude production test. The prompt below is illustrative.
What Claude returns versus what you still open
search_cases is a free ToolRouter skill. Required input is query. Optional country routes the search (US default, plus UK, IN, DE, CA, NL). Optional court, limit (default 20, max 50), date_after, and date_before narrow it.
US hits come from CourtListener's search API. CourtListener documents that, with highlighting off, snippet fields return the first 500 characters of opinion text, or highlighted matches when a q parameter is used. ToolRouter then stores that snippet (trimmed to 500 characters) as excerpt, plus case name, court, date, citations, citation count, CourtListener URL, and case_id (the cluster ID).
case_details is US-only. Give a CourtListener cluster ID or a citation such as 410 U.S. 113. It calls the same search endpoint, so you still get a snippet, not the html_with_citations full opinion CourtListener exposes on /api/rest/v4/opinions/. Open the returned URL for the opinion on CourtListener.
UK hits come from Find Case Law (England and Wales). The skill returns title, court, date, citation, and HTML/PDF URLs. Excerpt is empty in the current UK mapping. EU cases are not in search_cases; use search_legislation for EU instruments.
| Step | Skill | What you actually get |
|---|---|---|
| Find candidates | search_cases | Names, courts, dates, citations, US excerpts, source URLs |
| Open one US case | case_details | Metadata plus a CourtListener snippet, not full opinion text |
| See what cites it (US) | citation_analysis | Citing and cited opinion lists from CourtListener. Not a citator treatment (followed, distinguished, overruled) |
| Read the judgment | The url field | The public source page or PDF |
Harvey, Lexis, and Westlaw are a different product class. See Harvey alternatives for public legal research and the public legal data sources table.
Connect Claude
Follow Connect Claude and enable ToolRouter in the conversation. Confirm Legal Research appears in the available catalog. The Claude endpoint is policy-filtered, so source support alone does not guarantee availability in every client.
The skills are priced free on ToolRouter. Your assistant plan, provider credentials, and upstream rate limits remain separate requirements.
Connect your assistant, then try the task described in this guide.
Illustrative prompt
Use ToolRouter Legal Research.
Call search_cases with query "qualified immunity", country US, limit 10.
For the first result, call case_details with its case_id.
Return case name, court, date, citations, the snippet or excerpt, citation_count, and the CourtListener URL.
If a snippet is empty, say empty. Do not invent a holding.Swap the query for the issue you are mapping. Keep the instruction not to invent holdings. Then open the URL and read the opinion yourself.
Limits that matter on the first call
- US
case_detailsis a snippet. Full text lives on CourtListener, not in the skill payload. - UK/NL/CA excerpts are empty in the current search mapping. Canada and India also need their API keys or the skill returns unavailable.
citation_analysisis a citation graph, not Shepard's. CourtListener documents citing/cited links; it does not assign official treatment codes.- RECAP dockets (
search_dockets) are not PACER. They search the public RECAP archive of donated federal filings. - Authenticated CourtListener defaults published on 13 September 2026 are 5 requests/minute, 50/hour, and 125/day unless you have a membership or commercial agreement. See the CourtListener REST API.
Open Legal Research after you connect at toolrouter.com/connect. For which jurisdiction hits which database, use Public legal data sources.
*Source-reviewed 13 September 2026 against src/tools/case-law, CourtListener search/REST docs, and Find Case Law coverage. Not a live Claude research session and not legal advice.*
