Case Law Search

Search U.S. case law with dual keyword and AI semantic search, filter by jurisdiction, and save results.

1

Enter your question

Type a natural language question into the search bar -- for example:

"When can a court pierce the corporate veil in Delaware?"

The AI analyzes your question and generates an editable boolean query (e.g., "pierce the corporate veil" AND jurisdiction:Delaware). You can modify the boolean query before running the search or use it as-is.

2

Dual search runs in parallel

Two searches execute simultaneously:

  • Keyword / boolean search -- matches your query terms exactly against the CourtListener database.

  • AI semantic search -- interprets the meaning of your question and surfaces conceptually relevant cases even if they use different terminology.

Results from both searches are merged and ranked by relevance.

3

Review results

Each result appears as a case card showing:

  • Case name, citation, court, and date.

  • A relevance snippet highlighting the matching passage.

  • Citation count and good law status indicator.


Jurisdiction selection

Click the Jurisdiction filter to narrow your search:

  • All U.S. federal courts -- Supreme Court, Circuit Courts, District Courts.

  • All U.S. state courts -- every state appellate and supreme court in CourtListener.

  • Multi-jurisdiction -- select multiple jurisdictions at once.

  • Presets -- quick-select groups such as "All Federal Circuits" or "All State Supreme Courts."


Filters

Refine your results with additional filters:

Filter
Description

Date range

Limit results to cases decided within a start and end date.

Judge

Filter by authoring or concurring judge.

Topic

Narrow by legal topic or area of law.

Citation count

Surface highly cited cases by setting a minimum citation threshold.

Good law status

Exclude cases that have been overruled, reversed, or negatively treated.


Reading a case

Click a case card to open the full opinion viewer:

  • Text view -- the opinion rendered as formatted text with headings and paragraph breaks.

  • PDF toggle -- switch to the original PDF from the court, if available.

  • Search within -- find specific terms inside the opinion using the in-document search bar.


Bookmarking and saving

Bookmarks

Click the bookmark icon on any case card to save it for later. Organize bookmarks into folders and attach notes to remember why a case is relevant.

Save to Library or Matter

  • Save to Library -- adds the case to your personal research library, accessible from any Matter.

  • Save to Matter -- links the case directly to a specific Matter so it appears alongside other case materials and is available to the AI for context.

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