Full Text Search of US Court records

(judyrecords.com)

421 points | by FigurativeVoid 1 day ago

30 comments

  • photonthug 1 day ago
    I've searched for "sandwich murder" and did not find what I was looking for, but the way the elisions line up are sometimes pretty funny. I've also learned that Subway shops are among the most dangerous eateries and that bologna especially seems to make people irritable enough to open fire. A few highlights for your consideration, redacted to protect the innocent, guilty, or hungry bystanders

      - that the evidence that defendant fired the murder weapon during the sandwich
      - bologna sandwich found at the crime scene
      - presence in sandwich the morning of the murder
      - ways in which they could murder her mother. these included the sandwich ... sandwich incident could not be used
      - crime of capital murder. as a habitual offender, sentenced to life ... to the "bologna sandwich" constituted reversible error
      - coroner testified that victim had eaten a fish sandwich within 2 hours ... prior to his death
      - it was not first degree murder, and the court should have ... sandwich. he paid for the sandwich, but did not pay for the coffee
      - convicted of malice murder and possession of a ... sandwich
      - she was shot and that she had some change in one hand and a sandwich in the other ... sandwich in your hand kind of slow your progress down in getting a gun out of your ... sandwich
    • sizzle 10 hours ago
      The way they lay out their triangle cheese slices and skimp on toppings does it for me
    • xeromal 22 hours ago
      I grew up in a small town of 5000 in rural US and the first murder in the city that I remember was a guy who killed another guy in a subway. It was one of 2 that I remember in about 18 years
    • frogpelt 14 hours ago
      There are a lot of Subways and many times they are in strip malls and gas stations. That could be an explanation. Can’t explain the bologna part.
  • m348e912 4 hours ago
    I don't know how complete this database is.

    I couldn't find any hits on the Alec Balwin manslaughter case for shooting and killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.

    Maybe it's not in the database because the case was dismissed by the presiding judge?

  • ww520 1 day ago
    Search my name got the traffic infraction records, but none of the briefs and deposition I filed during discovery.
  • hoten 1 day ago
    I searched my name. It gave me a hit for someone (criminal trespass) in Texas, in a year I lived there, with my exact same height and ~same weight, and the arraignment date is my birthday. Wasn't me. Spooky!
    • qingcharles 20 hours ago
      I just helped a guy get 14 crimes removed from his record that he didn't commit. Someone in Texas just continuously committed heinous crimes over a decade or more and they were all just added to this other guy's criminal record. They seemingly had the same first name/initial/last name (fairly common name). I'm assuming dude in Texas was allowed to commit a crime spree because every time he was pulled in front of the court it looked like he was a first time offender.
    • CobrastanJorji 20 hours ago
      If that other guy is a from anywhere in Central or South America, I would not go back to Texas any time in the next four years.
    • m463 1 day ago
      Entire search system is a long-con for a "clear your name" business.
    • bfung 5 hours ago
      > Wasn’t me

      That’s what they all say XD j/k

    • thelittleone 1 day ago
      Sleep walker per chance?
  • pvg 1 day ago
  • IIAOPSW 1 day ago
    I appreciate that "we both reached for the gun" and "he had it coming" both turn up more than a handful of hits. "and all that jazz".
    • NoboruWataya 17 hours ago
      "I'd do it again" -> 740 million+ hits.
  • calderwoodra 15 hours ago
    What kind of database is this using and how is the search so performant?
  • almosthere 23 hours ago
    Didn't the guy that did this last time get in trouble
  • dizhn 15 hours ago
    My name is coming a bunch of times. They are all patents (?) citing something I wrote. What does this mean? Oh. article cited by patent applicant. I didn't know I inspired a bunch of Microsoft patents in the 2010s :D
  • mikewarot 22 hours ago
    Apparently it has Patent records as well... here's one of mine.

    https://www.judyrecords.com/record/qfwy5i5yb1e9

  • Minor49er 9 hours ago
    How do I sort the listings? I want to sort by filing date but I don't see the option for sorting. I'm on Firefox Mobile
  • sizzle 10 hours ago
    Can someone help me with the filters? What’s the best way to search and filter/return only full case texts? I keep getting patents and stuff
  • delichon 1 day ago
    As a free service, I wonder if the burden of complying with a right to be forgotten would be too much to sustain.
    • kragen 1 day ago
      Under US law, there is no such thing as a right to be forgotten, because it would infringe on the public's right to remember. This is considered especially important when what is being remembered is a lawsuit, where transparency is essential to protecting the public interest.
    • _bin_ 1 day ago
      Almost certainly. Presumably why it’s not available to euros.

      Also would be a very strange to apply this so-called “right” when court records are essential to keeping organs of government accountable.

      • carstenhag 20 hours ago
        Relatively sure this would be fine in some European countries. In Germany, afaik it's an ongoing question on whether there's a copyright on the records (especially from the lawyer texts).

        The names and so on are always censored anyhow, in some cases it's a bit obvious who did things though. If it's a lawsuit about a company and let's say it sells books online, maybe you can tell by 1-2 things what company it is. But for people, it's not so straight forward.

        • miki123211 17 hours ago
          > The names and so on are always censored anyhow

          This is actually starting to become a problem because computers are getting too good at their job.

          Let's say a news site reports on a criminal trial of a John Smith, censored as John S. If John Smith was in any way famous before the trial and had an article written about him, that article is somewhat likely to appear in the "you may also like" sidebar when you're reading the censored one. Some news sites try to suppress this, but I'm not sure they're legally required to do so.

      • victorbjorklund 10 hours ago
        im im EU and it is noy blocked here
        • _bin_ 25 minutes ago
          Right but it only covers American courts.

          I presume since it’s free and is likely domiciled/hosted in America, the owner could probably just scrape euro records and tell the EU “lol get bent” if they made a stink, but probably doesn’t want to run the risk.

        • _bin_ 26 minutes ago
          Right but it only covers American courts.
    • joekim 1 day ago
      I would think so if the right to be forgotten was legal principle in the United States. It only applies in Europe and I don’t think it applies to court records that are public.
      • miki123211 17 hours ago
        In Europe, court records aren't public in the same way as they are in the US.

        They're not searchable, they're often not even digitized, and the media is generally not allowed to report the full names of those accused.

        Where I live, it's literally impossible to run a background check on somebody. If a background check is required, the person of interest has to specifically request an official document from the government proving they haven't been convicted for any crimes, or listing the crimes they have been convicted for. This is pretty common when starting a new job, I have had to do this.

        Now there's also a sex offenders registry, which authorized institutions can query directly, although they have to get consent first.

        • Muromec 4 hours ago
          >or listing the crimes they have been convicted for. This is pretty common when starting a new job

          In the Netherlands it's not even that -- you can ask for a certificate of "good behavior" with a purpose and they just say yes or no. If the purpose is employment, the form asks which sector you will be employed in, because sex offenders can still work somewhere and so do people convicted of financial fraud. You just don't want them to work in specific places, i.e. near kids or banks respectively.

          Data minimization is a thing.

        • NoTeslaThrow 11 hours ago
          > Where I live, it's literally impossible to run a background check on somebody.

          I have a hard time imagine that law enforcement doesn't have access to it. At that point access is given by degree of difficulty and not "impossible". I could buy "illegal" tho.

          • Muromec 4 hours ago
            Police maintains the database, so of course they can run a background check. But they don't offer it as a service and don't give away the information to anyone except the person it concerns.
      • Jolter 17 hours ago
        I believe it applies to court records, too, as long as the request for deletion is directed at an Internet search engine. The actual court record is not possible to get rid of under the GDPR, you can only make it so your court record is not returned by Google, Bing etc when searching for your name.
        • ls612 8 hours ago
          Someone outside Europe should make a search engine that only shows records that Euro politicians don’t want the public to see. The idea of the “right to be forgotten” is horrifying and straight out of 1984, thank god once again for the First Amendment.
  • herodotus 10 hours ago
    Interesting that it includes patents. (Found at least one of mine).
    • sizzle 10 hours ago
      Don’t leave us hanging, what’s the nature of your patent??
  • rokob 12 hours ago
    I can’t find any of the times I’ve been in court. Not sure if good or bad.
  • breadchris 1 day ago
    would love this even more if the search query ended up in the URL
    • fancyswimtime 1 day ago
      the search pattern implemented is strange; I'd guess to push certain users to using the api
    • miltonlaxer 1 day ago
      Yeah we need to be able to pass query to share ?q=mysearch
  • ideashower 1 day ago
    Assuming this is Federal Court and not States, right?
    • wavemode 1 day ago
      Doesn't seem to be Federal-only, or even only major crimes. Here is a result I found for misdemeanor failure to pay taxes in Alaska: https://www.judyrecords.com/record/1q894pg6bfe9
    • ww520 1 day ago
      Including states and counties, I got my traffic ticket result at the county level.
    • hammock 1 day ago
      No and it misses a lot like chancery court
  • paustint 1 day ago
    All of the five searches I tried had Tennessee court documents as the top result, anyone else experience this?
    • raegis 18 hours ago
      Same here. I lived there 30 years ago, and my one speeding ticket in TN shows up first. I've had 2 or 3 "rolling stop sign" tickets in CA and can not find them.
  • jonsagara 20 hours ago
    Searching up family members is a dangerous game to play on a Friday night
    • rightbyte 13 hours ago
      Ye I don't think it is good that authority gossip get so accessable.
  • cynicalpeace 1 day ago
    I typed in my name and found my dad likes to drive around without a seat belt. He hates driving with a seat belt. Always has.

    I'm a Jr.

  • 6stringmerc 1 day ago
    Very cool glad this site is still around after the fiasco with the company claiming a hack / breach when it was their own deployment revealing sealed case files.
    • IG_Semmelweiss 1 day ago
      can you elaborate ? how can sealed case files be exposed by a 3rd party index ?
      • dreamcompiler 11 hours ago
        Because they weren't sealed. There was no access control on the system. The vendor used obscure URLs claiming they made the system "secure."

        And we know how that story always plays out.

  • honestinquiryw 11 hours ago
    How does one send a removal request if an EU citizen is listed in this directory?
    • iancmceachern 11 hours ago
      I'm not am expert, but I don't think you can, these are public court records.
      • victorbjorklund 10 hours ago
        You cant be removed from the court case. But you can remove the website putting it online.
        • iancmceachern 9 hours ago
          The government puts it online, the website is just the search engine.
          • RKFADU_UOFCCLEL 9 hours ago
            Ah! But legal people think that all of the following are by and from and are the same person:

            - the domain

            - the owner of the website

            - the content displayed on the website

            • iancmceachern 9 hours ago
              Even if the content is dynamically generated or regurgitated from elsewhere?

              And more to the point, to what end? If the info is public knowledge it's public knowledge, it's out there already.

    • brudgers 8 hours ago
      If it matters, ask your lawyer.

      If it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter.

  • TZubiri 1 day ago
    Very nice.

    Can you do structured field queries?

    Like, all cases where defendant is X. And maybe where the cause is Y

  • catlover76 1 day ago
    Where is this getting the docs from? It's a lot of work for FLP/Courtlistener to get stuff, and even they don't have 100% of records (not sure if this site is claiming to have 100%, it's unclear)
    • TZubiri 1 day ago
      Probably scraped and aggregated from the various state, municipal and federal courts directly.
      • comex 1 day ago
        At least for federal courts, the records are available on PACER but they cost money. Who is paying?
        • kopecs 1 day ago
          Probably https://free.law/

          ETA: which is of course mentioned on the thread root. But RECAP users would be paying, in that case.

        • ls612 8 hours ago
          All court records are not copyrightable so once one person gets a document from PACER they are free to upload it to things like RECAP. Allegedly PACER is only allowed to charge enough to cover the infra costs of operating it, and has a pretty generous free tier nowadays so it’s mostly law firms that end up having to pay.
      • qingcharles 20 hours ago
        This. Each county pretty much has a unique system though, so it's a pain.
  • kubb 1 day ago
    4,577,166 cases for marijuana.
    • cwmoore 22 hours ago
      Really is more about quality than quantity.
    • morkalork 1 day ago
      Smoking Marijuana can ruin your life. Why? Because the state will ruin it for you if they catch you with it!
      • RKFADU_UOFCCLEL 9 hours ago
        What is your opinion about Addictive social media or porn?

        Sorry, had to.

        • morkalork 6 hours ago
          You don't need the government to ruin your life for you with those :)
          • ranger_danger 3 hours ago
            Then why do you say it's necessary for smoking?
            • morkalork 33 minutes ago
              The government doesn't go out of its way to throw people in prison for gooning or doom scrolling too much? But have one roach on you in the wrong state...
  • aaron695 1 day ago
    [dead]
  • legalthrow-999 20 hours ago
    [flagged]
  • the_arun 1 day ago
    Are these not available in public search sites like Google?
    • kevin_thibedeau 1 day ago
      They're nominally available on the PACER database for a fee that is waived for infrequent users. Queries from there can be archived by the RECAP extension to make the public records unencumbered.
      • IG_Semmelweiss 1 day ago
        Can you expand on this ?

        I searched the DB but it seems i couldnt get the actual docket unless i paid for a PACER sub. Is that right ? This is only an index, but to actually see the court docs, you have to pay someone ?

        • kevin_thibedeau 1 day ago
          You sign up with a CC. At the end of the month they will reverse any charges if you stay below some threshold for number of queries. You will get PDF links to the court filings related to each case.
        • qingcharles 20 hours ago
          If it's something you want, email me at my bio and I'll pull it from PACER.

          Otherwise, courtlistener has PACER docs that us users exfiltrate from PACER and upload for free.