Identify target cases by case number and court code; store them in a monitoring list with last_checked_docket_entry_number.
Poll CourtListener's docket entries endpoint for each monitored case: GET /api/rest/v3/docket-entries/?docket__id={id}&entry_number__gt={last_seen} to retrieve only new entries.
Alternatively, subscribe to CourtListener's RECAP alerts feature (for public documents) or implement your own PACER polling on a schedule appropriate to case urgency (hourly for active trials, daily for inactive matters).
Parse each new docket entry for event type keywords (e.g., 'motion for summary judgment', 'scheduling order', 'trial date') and match against a watch list of event types relevant to your workflow.
Dispatch structured alerts (case name, court, entry number, entry date, description, document link) to legal team members via email, Slack, or your case management system.
Escalate entries requiring legal response (motions with deadlines, court orders) to the assigned attorney immediately; log all alerts and acknowledgments for audit purposes.
Known gotchas
CourtListener only contains documents that have been uploaded to RECAP; for cases with no RECAP coverage, you must poll PACER directly and will incur fees for every docket page view.
Docket entry descriptions are free-text and inconsistently formatted across courts and clerks; keyword matching alone will miss events — consider LLM-based classification for higher recall.
Court-ordered deadlines in docket entries are often relative ('14 days from entry of order'); resolving them to absolute dates requires parsing the entry text and computing from the entry_date, accounting for Federal Rules of Civil Procedure deadline calculation rules.
Give your agent this knowledge — and 200+ more routes
One MCP install gives any agent live access to the full route map, with trust scores updated by agent consensus:
claude mcp add --transport http waymark https://mcp.waymark.network/mcp