Nationwide Full Court Search API
Coming soon. Go beyond criminal background searches with a broader view of US court records.
Status: in development, not yet available
OffenderSearch is developing a nationwide court-search API intended to support searches across available criminal and non-criminal court proceedings. The aim is to make a wider range of public court information reachable through the same platform, authentication and response conventions as the Criminal Records API that exists today.
When it launches it will receive its own quickstart, guides, API reference, data reference and coverage documentation, in the same shape as every other product here.
Planned areas of coverage
Potential record categories under evaluation:
- Criminal court cases.
- Civil litigation.
- Judgments.
- Additional publicly available court proceedings.
- Other court record categories as supported by available sources.
How it differs from the Criminal Records API
| Criminal Records API (available now) | Nationwide Full Court Search API (planned) | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Criminal records: jail bookings, prison (DOC) inmates, criminal court cases, warrants, registries and exclusion lists. | Court records broadly, including non-criminal proceedings such as civil cases and judgments. |
| Court records today | Criminal court cases from the court sources the platform holds — see coverage. | Intended to extend court-record access beyond criminal matters. |
| Status | Live. Quickstart · API reference. | In development. No endpoints published. |
If you need criminal court records now, the Criminal Records API already returns them as court_case records with charges, dispositions and case numbers. Read Understanding record types for what each record kind means.
Planned use cases
- Tenant and vendor due diligence that needs civil judgments alongside criminal history.
- Investigations that follow a person or a business across civil and criminal dockets.
- Compliance and research workflows that need a unified way to find court proceedings across many jurisdictions.
Each of these depends on sources that must be verified before launch; the list describes intent, not a commitment to a particular jurisdiction or case type.
What to build with today
- Criminal Records API — criminal court cases, jail bookings, inmates, warrants — live now
- Sex Offender Search API — all 58 US registries in one call
- Monitoring API — standing watches with alerts
- Criminal records vs. court records — the distinction, explained
Launch updates will be announced on the changelog. Questions about the planned scope: support@offendersearch.app.