CaseVine API

Quickstart

Screen a company against every U.S. federal case in one call. Send just a name — nothing else is required:

curl -X POST https://www.casevine.ai/api/v1/parties/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer cv_test_YOUR_SANDBOX_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "Quiznos"}'

That's the whole happy path. The response includes an entity_confidence score and the list of cases.

Two-step workflow

Start simple, then enrich only if you need to. Most searches resolve cleanly on the first call:

1. Send the name. POST {"name": "Quiznos"} and read the response.
2. Check entity_confidence.If it's high and the caseslook right, you're done.
3. Enrich and retry only when confidence is low or the results look wrong — add one or more enrichment fields (a website, ticker, state, EIN, …) to pin the search to the exact legal entity, then call again.

Getting started

CaseVine screens names against the PACER Case Locator and returns clean, structured JSON. Flat pricing, no PACER fee passthrough, and $0.00 on no-result searches.

1. Get an API key. Create a free account to get a sandbox key instantly, then add a card for a production key. Go to billing →

2. Base URL.

https://www.casevine.ai/api/v1

3. Authenticate with your key as a Bearer token, then make your first call:

curl -X POST https://www.casevine.ai/api/v1/parties/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer cv_test_YOUR_SANDBOX_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "Acme Robotics", "entity_type": "business"}'

Prefer Postman? Import our collection to try every live endpoint with example requests pre-filled — just set the api_key variable to your key.

Authentication

All requests require your API key in the Authorization header as a Bearer token:

Authorization: Bearer cv_test_YOUR_SANDBOX_KEY

There are two kinds of keys:

Party search

POST/api/v1/parties/search

Returns every federal case in which the given party appears. Results are cached for 30 days, so repeat queries return instantly.

Request headers

Request body

Confidence by fields provided

Response fields

Each object in cases contains:

Example request & response

curl -X POST https://www.casevine.ai/api/v1/parties/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer cv_test_YOUR_SANDBOX_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "Acme Robotics", "entity_type": "business"}'

{
  "query": "ACME ROBOTICS",
  "result_count": 3,
  "entity_resolved": true,
  "canonical_name": "Acme Robotics, Inc.",
  "entity_confidence": 0.97,
  "entity_id": "zeph_9f2a1c",
  "cases": [
    {
      "case_id": "7712345",
      "case_number": "1:21-cv-04567",
      "case_title": "Acme Robotics, Inc. v. Globex Corp.",
      "court_id": "nysd",
      "date_filed": "2021-05-14",
      "date_terminated": null,
      "case_type": "cv",
      "nature_of_suit": "830 Patent",
      "party_role": "Defendant",
      "status": "active"
    }
  ]
}

Enrichment fields

Every field below is optional. Send them alongside name to disambiguate a common name and pin the search to a specific legal entity (they drive entity resolution). The stronger the identifier, the higher the resulting entity_confidence.

Entity resolution

Common names are ambiguous — "Enron Corp" alone matches thousands of records across dozens of related entities. Before searching PACER, CaseVine resolves your input to a single canonical legal entity using the disambiguation fields you provide.

How it works. When you include signals like an EIN, website, ticker, or state of incorporation, we resolve them to a canonical entity and return an entity_confidence score (0–1):

• Confidence ≥ 0.80 → we set entity_resolved: true and return the matched canonical_name, entity_confidence, and entity_id.
• Confidence < 0.80 or no match → entity_resolved: false (any lower-confidence guess is still returned in canonical_name so you can decide).

The search itself always runs against the name you submit, so recall is never reduced — resolution annotatesresults with the identified legal entity rather than replacing your query. (Court party names often differ from a company's registered legal name, so we don't substitute one for the other.)

Best practice: pass the strongest identifier you have (EIN, website, ticker, or state) — it raises confidence and pins the result to the right legal entity.

Case Alerts

Case Alerts notify you of new federal litigation involving an entity you watch. Add a company or person as a watched entity and CaseVine re-screens it nightly against production PACER — any newly filed case triggers an alert by email and (if configured) a webhook. This is the ongoing counterpart to a one-off party search: instead of asking "what exists today?" you ask "tell me the moment something new appears."

Add a watched entity

POST /api/monitor/add — records the entity, captures a baseline of its current cases, and starts watching. The optional webhook_url receives new-case payloads.

curl -X POST https://casevine.ai/api/monitor/add \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer cv_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Acme Corporation",
    "type": "business",
    "webhook_url": "https://example.com/hooks/casevine"
  }'

Response:

{
  "monitored": true,
  "entity": {
    "id": "ent_8c31f0",
    "name": "Acme Corporation",
    "type": "business",
    "baseline_case_count": 12,
    "date_added": "2026-07-02T00:00:00Z"
  }
}

List & remove

GET /api/monitor/list returns your watched entities, your limit (null on Pro — unlimited), and how many are active. POST /api/monitor/remove with an id or name stops alerts for an entity while preserving its alert history.

New-case alert payload

When the nightly re-screen finds cases not present in the entity's last snapshot, CaseVine POSTs this to your webhook_url (and sends the same summary by email):

{
  "entity": "Acme Corporation",
  "new_cases": [
    {
      "case_id": "cv_9f2a1c",
      "case_number": "1:26-cv-04821",
      "case_title": "Doe v. Acme Corporation",
      "court_id": "nysd",
      "date_filed": "2026-07-01"
    }
  ]
}

Rate limits & quotas

When you exceed your quota the API returns 429. Handle it by backing off and retrying later, or upgrade for a higher limit.

Caching saves you money. Every result is cached for 30 days, so repeat queries return instantly — you are never billed twice for the same search, and no-result searches are always free.

Errors

Every error returns a JSON body with an error message and a request_id (also in the x-request-id header) to quote in support requests. Server-side failures additionally include a code.

Example error

{
  "error": "Search too broad.",
  "message": "\"Enron Corp\" matches 2341 records across 44 PACER pages. Narrow it with the 'jurisdiction' (cv/cr/bk/ap) and/or 'case_year' filters, or provide a more specific name.",
  "total_pages": 44,
  "total_elements": 2341,
  "entity_resolved": false,
  "request_id": "9f2a1c7e-4b3d-4a1e-9c2f-1d8e5a6b7c3d"
}

Case types

The case_type on each returned case is one of the PACER federal case-type codes below. You can also pass cv, cr, bk, or ap as the jurisdiction filter to narrow a search.

Party roles

The party_role on each case describes how the searched party appears in it. Raw PACER role codes are normalized to these values:

Status values

Each case's status is derived from its PACER termination date:

Sandbox mode

Every account starts with a sandbox key (cv_test_…) — free, no credit card. Use it to build and test your integration end-to-end.

• Sandbox keys route to PACER's QA environment (realistic test data, not billed).
• Capped at 10 searches; the response shape is identical to production.
• Your sandbox key is always visible in the dashboard and can be rotated anytime.

When you're ready, add a card on the billing page to get a production cv_live_ key that searches live federal records.

Code examples

curl -X POST https://www.casevine.ai/api/v1/parties/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer cv_test_YOUR_SANDBOX_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "Acme Robotics", "entity_type": "business"}'

Changelog