The fastest way to see who a company has been to court with, for 1¢ a check
Send a company or person and get back every federal civil case they are party to, as clean data: how many, what kind, which court, when and how it ended. By API or bulk file, with no per-page fees.
10.9M
Federal civil cases searchable
every US district court since 1988
314,096
New federal civil cases in 2025
one year of filings
94
Federal district courts covered
in one search
1¢
Per check on Starter
the same price when nothing is found
Pricing
1lookupvs
PACER
CourtAPIFederal Litigation Check costs 1¢ a check, 90% below PACER's 10¢ a search
One check returns the federal civil cases a company or person is party to, with the kind of suit, the court, the dates and the outcome. Same credits as every other 1Lookup product.
1Lookup
1¢
a check
PACER
10¢
a search
90%
less than PACER's published price
5,000
1Lookup$99 a monthStarter, up to 10,000 checks
- PACER$500 a month
Pay per use
- CourtAPI$500 a month
Pro
At 5,000 checks a month, 1Lookup is $401 a month less than PACER: 80% less.
Starter at $99 a month covers up to 10,000 checks (2 credits each). Credits you do not spend here work on every other 1Lookup lookup.
Federal Litigation Check requires approval: start the free trial, then send a short application.
Every plan, priced per check
One credit balance pays for Federal Litigation Check and every other 1Lookup product. A larger plan buys credits for less, so each check costs less.
Starter
1¢
a check at $99 a month
Up to 10,000 checks (2 credits each)
Growth
0.8¢
a check at $299 a month
Up to 42,500 checks (2 credits each)
Professional
0.7¢
a check at $799 a month
Up to 125,000 checks (2 credits each)
Enterprise
0.4¢
a check at $1,999 a month
Up to 500,000 checks (2 credits each)
The monthly bill at each volume
1Lookup is the cheapest plan that covers the volume, month to month. Each rival is the cheapest way its own page prints to buy the same volume.
| Checks a month | 1Lookup | PACER | CourtAPI |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | $99Starter | $0Fees waived | $100Basic |
| 500 | $99Starter | $50Pay per use | $100Basic |
| 1,000 | $99Starter | $100Pay per use | $100Basic |
| 5,000 | $99Starter | $500Pay per use | $500Pro |
| 10,000 | $99Starter | $1,000Pay per use | $1,000Elite |
| 50,000 | $799Professional | $5,000Pay per use | $2,500Enterprise |
| 100,000 | $799Professional | $10,000Pay per use | $5,000Enterprise |
- PACER's monthly bill is lower than 1Lookup's at 1 to 989 checks a month. A search that fills more than one page of results costs 10¢ for each page; the bills here count one page a search.
- From 1 to 500,000 checks a month, CourtAPI's bill is never lower than 1Lookup's. CourtAPI's plans page says each customer uses their own PACER account, so PACER's fees come on top and are not counted here.
1Lookup vs PACER, line by line
1Lookup vs CourtAPI, line by lineA company's federal court history in one call and at one flat price
Every federal district court in one search
One call covers the federal civil cases in all 94 district courts since 1988, so you do not search court by court or pay by the page.
- All 94 district courts
- Cases filed since 1988
- One call per name
- No per-page fees
A history you can read in a glance
Counts by kind of suit and by role, open cases, class actions and the latest filings come back as fields, so a risk score or a spreadsheet can use them directly.
- Plaintiff and defendant counts
- Kind of suit
- Open cases and class actions
- How each case ended
The same price whether it finds ten cases or none
Every check is 2 credits: 1¢ on Starter and 0.4¢ on Enterprise. A search that finds nothing is one check, not a bill for empty result pages.
- 1¢ a check on Starter
- 0.4¢ a check on Enterprise
- Zero results cost one check
- Month to month
Run it on one name or a whole vendor list
Call the API from your onboarding flow, or upload your vendor, customer or prospect list and get every row back with its court history.
- REST API
- Bulk file upload
- Companies and people
- One credit balance
A name goes in and a court history comes out
Send a company or person
Send a name, with a state if you have one, by API from your onboarding or CRM, or upload a list as a file.
$ check a company
"name": "Sample Holdings LLC"
"state": "TX"
We search every federal district court at once
The name is matched against federal civil cases filed since 1988, in all district courts, in one call.
94 district courts searched
12 cases matched
Cases sorted by kind and role
Latest filing first
Read the history as data
Counts by kind and role, the latest cases and how they ended. Every check is 2 credits, cases found or not.
cases_total12
as_defendant9
One endpoint returns the federal civil cases behind a name
Same authentication, same credit balance, and the same response envelope as every other 1Lookup product. If you have already integrated one endpoint, this one is a URL change.
curl -X POST https://app.1lookup.io/api/v1/federal-litigation-check \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"name": "Sample Holdings LLC", "state": "TX"}'{
"name": "Sample Holdings LLC",
"cases_total": 12,
"as_defendant": 9,
"as_plaintiff": 3,
"open": 2,
"class_actions": 1,
"by_kind": { "contract": 5, "employment": 4, "consumer_credit": 2, "tcpa": 1 },
"latest_filing": "2026-05-19",
"cases": [
{
"court": "N.D. Tex.",
"filed": "2026-05-19",
"kind": "contract",
"role": "defendant",
"status": "open"
}
],
"metadata": { "credits_used": 2 }
}A company's federal court history on one card
How often it is sued, by whom and over what, with the latest case first. The company and cases below are invented.
- Name checkedSample Holdings LLC
- Federal civil cases12
- As defendant9
- Open now2
- Most common kindContract
- Latest filing2026-05-19, N.D. Tex.
- Class actions1
- Credits used2
{
"name": "Sample Supply Co",
"cases_total": 0,
"cases": [],
"metadata": { "credits_used": 2 }
}Every check returns the same fields at one flat price
A field that does not apply comes back empty and never as a guess, and every check costs the same 2 credits.
Summary
- cases_total
- as_defendant
- as_plaintiff
- open
- class_actions
- latest_filing
By kind
- by_kind.contract
- by_kind.employment
- by_kind.consumer_credit
- by_kind.tcpa
Cases
- cases[].court
- cases[].filed
- cases[].kind
- cases[].role
- cases[].status
Billing
- metadata.credits_used
Risk, diligence and onboarding teams check court history first
Vendor risk and procurement teams
Check a new supplier's federal court history before the contract is signed.
Business verification and onboarding teams
Add a court history to every business that signs up, next to its registration and sanctions checks.
Investors and acquirers
See how often a target company is sued, and over what, before diligence goes deeper.
Insurers and underwriters of businesses
Read a commercial applicant's litigation pattern as data, not as a stack of court pages.
Sales and account teams
Spot prospects that are often in court over contracts before you sign them.
Law firms and legal teams
Pull a party's federal case history in one call, across every district.
These are the questions people ask before they start
What does Federal Litigation Check return?
For a company or person, the federal civil cases they are party to: how many as plaintiff and as defendant, the kind of suit (contract, employment, consumer credit, TCPA and so on), the court, the filing and closing dates, class actions and how each case ended.
How much does it cost?
2 credits a check: 1¢ on Starter (10,000 checks a month for $99) and 0.4¢ on Enterprise. A check that finds no cases costs the same and returns a count of zero.
How do I get access?
Federal Litigation Check requires approval. Start the 7-day free trial, and right after it starts your account asks for a short application about your business and how you will use the results. We review each one before we switch the product on.
Why does it require approval?
It returns court records about companies and people, so we review each business and its stated use before we switch it on. The application asks for your website, your monthly volume and your use, and you confirm you will not use the results for decisions about credit, insurance, employment, housing or healthcare.
Which courts does it cover?
Federal civil cases in every US district court, filed from 1988 on, from the federal courts' own case data. It does not cover state or county courts, criminal cases or bankruptcy, so a count of zero means no federal civil case was found, not that no case exists anywhere.
How fresh is it?
The case data is refreshed each quarter, as the courts publish it. A case filed in the last few months may not be in it yet.
Does it return court documents?
No. It returns the case data a screening needs, as structured fields. Documents and live dockets come from the court itself.
Do my credits work for anything else?
Yes. Credits are one balance across every 1Lookup product, so the plan that pays for litigation checks also pays for business verification, sanctions screening, company data and the rest.
Court history is one check, and these complete the picture
Here is how Federal Litigation Check compares with the court data services
Each page sets a rival's published price beside ours at the same monthly volume and says where the rival is cheaper. Every price carries its source and the month it was read.