Legal Mcp

LegalMCP

[](https://github.com/Mahender22/legal-mcp/actions/workflows/ci.yml) [](https://python.org) [](LICENSE) [](https://pypi.org/project/legal-mcp/)

The first comprehensive US legal MCP server for AI assistants.

Connect Claude, GPT, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible AI to 4M+ US court opinions, Clio practice management, and PACER federal filings. Research in seconds, not hours.

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30-Second Demo

You:  Find Supreme Court cases about Fourth Amendment and cell phone location data

LegalMCP:  Found 52 results. Top case:

  Carpenter v. United States, 585 U.S. 296 (2018)
  The Court held that accessing historical cell-site location
  information constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment,
  requiring a warrant supported by probable cause.

  → 127 cases cite this opinion
  → Full text: courtlistener.com/opinion/4578834

Why LegalMCP?

| | Traditional Research | AI + LegalMCP | |---|---|---| | Find relevant cases | 45-90 min | Note:** Use the full path to legal-mcp inside your virtual environment. Remove the LEGAL_MCP_DEMO line and add your API keys for real data (see [SETUP.md](SETUP.md)).

Connect to Claude Code

Run this command to add LegalMCP globally (available in every session):

Mac/Linux:

claude mcp add legal-mcp /path/to/legal-mcp-env/bin/legal-mcp

Windows:

claude mcp add legal-mcp C:\path\to\legal-mcp-env\Scripts\legal-mcp.exe

To enable demo mode, add the env flag:

Mac/Linux:

claude mcp add legal-mcp -e LEGAL_MCP_DEMO=true -- /path/to/legal-mcp-env/bin/legal-mcp

Windows:

claude mcp add legal-mcp -e LEGAL_MCP_DEMO=true -- C:\path\to\legal-mcp-env\Scripts\legal-mcp.exe

> Tip: To add it to a specific project only, add -s project flag or create a .mcp.json file in your project root.

Connect to Cursor / Windsurf

LegalMCP works with any MCP-compatible client. Add the legal-mcp command to your AI tool's MCP server configuration.

Configuration

Set environment variables for API access. See [SETUP.md](SETUP.md) for step-by-step instructions.

| Variable | Required | Description | |----------|----------|-------------| | COURTLISTENER_TOKEN | Optional | Higher rate limits for case law search | | CLIO_TOKEN | For Clio tools | OAuth token for practice management | | PACER_USERNAME | For PACER tools | PACER account username | | PACER_PASSWORD | For PACER tools | PACER account password | | LEGAL_MCP_DEMO | Optional | Set true for demo mode (no API keys) |

All 18 Tools

Case Law

| Tool | What It Does | |------|-------------| | search_case_law | Search 4M+ US court opinions by topic, court, date range | | get_case_details | Get full opinion text for a specific case | | get_case_record | Get docket — parties, judges, procedural history | | find_citing_cases | Find cases that cite a specific opinion | | find_cited_cases | Find cases that an opinion relies on | | parse_legal_citations | Parse Bluebook citations from any text | | list_available_courts | List all 400+ courts and their codes | | list_reporter_abbreviations | Decode reporter abbreviations (U.S., F.3d, etc.) |

Practice Management — Clio

| Tool | What It Does | |------|-------------| | search_clients | Search contacts by name, email, phone | | search_matters | Search matters by number, description, status | | get_matter_details | Full matter info — client, billing, deadlines | | get_time_entries | Billable hours by matter, attorney, date range | | get_matter_tasks | Tasks and to-dos for a matter | | get_matter_documents | Documents attached to a matter | | get_calendar | Hearings, deadlines, and meetings |

Court Filings — PACER

| Tool | What It Does | |------|-------------| | search_federal_cases | Search PACER for federal court cases | | get_federal_case | Get case details from PACER | | get_court_filings | Get docket entries and filings |

> Note: PACER charges $0.10/page for document downloads. LegalMCP searches and lists for free — it does not auto-download paid documents.

Pricing

Free and open source. All 18 tools, MIT license, no paywall. Just install and go.

Docker

# Copy and configure environment
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your API keys

# Run
docker-compose up

This starts the MCP server on port 8000 and the waitlist API on port 8080.

How It Works

LegalMCP is a Model Context Protocol server. MCP is an open standard that lets AI assistants call external tools — like searching case law or querying your Clio data.

┌──────────────┐     MCP      ┌──────────────┐      API      ┌──────────────┐
│              │  ──────────►  │              │  ──────────►  │              │
│  Claude /    │   Tool calls  │   LegalMCP   │   HTTP        │ CourtListener│
│  GPT /       │  ◄──────────  │   Server     │  ◄──────────  │ Clio / PACER │
│  Cursor      │   Results     │  (your PC)   │   JSON        │              │
└──────────────┘               └──────────────┘               └──────────────┘

Your data stays on your machine. LegalMCP runs locally and connects directly to the APIs.

Development

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/Mahender22/legal-mcp.git
cd legal-mcp
pip install -e ".[dev,waitlist]"

# Run tests
pytest legal_mcp/tests/ -v

# Run server locally
python -m legal_mcp.src.server

License

[MIT](LICENSE) — use it however you want.

Source & license

This open-source MCP server is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: Mahender22
• Source: Mahender22/legal-mcp
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.