Membership-Based API Usage Restrictions

API access through membership is intended for individuals, small or unfunded organizations, small law firms, and small government bodies.

Free Law Project is a small non-profit that partners with organizations and individuals to pursue its mission. We provide API access to thousands of users, and we are excited to offer this access as a member benefit. Please read and honestly adhere to the following terms if you plan to use membership-based API access.

If you have any questions or you're not sure how these terms apply to you, please get in touch.

What membership-based API access is for:

• Membership-based API access is intended for personal, educational, research, journalistic, and exploratory use.
• Solo practitioners and law firms with five or fewer attorneys are welcome to use membership-based API access.
• Small government use — a researcher at an agency, a clerk pulling dockets, a public defender's office — is welcome to use membership-based API access.
• Small organizations that are pre-revenue and unfunded are welcome to use membership-based API access.
• Journalists are welcome to use the API for their reporting; if you're at a major outlet, please reach out and we'll help you find the right fit.
• Academic researchers with published papers or an .edu email address should sign up for our EDU membership, which has a generous access tier.

What membership-based API access is not for:

• Membership-based API access may not be used to power a revenue-positive commercial product, service, or feature — whether you sell it directly, offer it as part of a subscription, or include it as a benefit of something else you sell. We love supporting innovation, and when it turns revenue-positive, we'd love to hear from you.
• Membership-based API access is for small firms only. If yours has more than five attorneys, let’s discuss if a commercial agreement makes sense instead.
• Membership-based API access may not be used to build tools for for-profit or non-profit organizations, even if those tools aren't sold outside the company. We consider internal tooling that supports an organization's operation to be commercial use, and we like to chat with folks developing these kinds of systems.

Account and usage rules

• One person, one account. Do not create multiple accounts to expand your access.
• Please don't share API keys across people or organizations.

Commercial use

• Commercial users should contact our partnerships team to set up an agreement that fits the use case.
• Commercial agreements come with higher rate limits, support, and terms appropriate for production use.

Memberships are integral to democratizing access to legal materials, we are grateful for all of our members. If you have any questions, or your situation doesn't fit neatly into one of the buckets above, just email us. We're here to support you!