Court Listener vs Courtlistener MCP Server

In-depth architectural comparison of the Court Listener and Courtlistener MCP Server MCP servers. Compare execution transports, security boundaries, tool capabilities, quality scores, and ready-to-paste client installation snippets for Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code.

Which MCP Server Should You Choose?

Choose Court Listener when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Legal domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).
• Primary tools included: find_case, lookup_citation, list_case_opinions.

Explore Court Listener Details

Choose Courtlistener MCP Server when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Legal domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).
• Primary tools included: courtlistener_search_opinions, courtlistener_get_opinion, courtlistener_get_citations.

Explore Courtlistener MCP Server Details

Feature & Specification Comparison

Specification	Court Listener Legal	Courtlistener MCP Server Legal
Summary	CourtListener MCP — Free Law Project's CourtListener API (free, no auth required for basic access)	Search US court opinions, federal dockets, judges, citations, and oral arguments via CourtListener.
Category & Scope	Legal	Legal

Tools & Capabilities Breakdown

Ready-to-Paste Client Configurations

Paste either (or both) of these JSON server blocks into your client config file (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "court-listener": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@pipeworx/mcp-court-listener"
      ]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "courtlistener-mcp-server": {
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": [
        "@cyanheads/courtlistener-mcp-server@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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