FAQ

How do you get the data?

Legal codes are not copyrightable and are in the public domain. The Supreme Court confirmed this in Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org (2020). Codes are almost always hosted by one of several publishers, who do not charge for access. We retrieve the text from these publishers and make it available in a structured, machine-readable format.

What do publishers do?

Publishers help cities handle conflicts between ordinances, ensure everything is properly formatted, and manage the actual publication process. It is a valuable service that cities pay for. We are not replacing or competing with that service.

How current is the data?

Content is fetched from the publisher on first request and cached. The cache records when each section was last retrieved — we show the current text as of the last fetch, not a versioned history. To see exactly when a jurisdiction was last synced, check the lastCrawled field in GET /jurisdictions/:id. This is also shown in the browse interface next to each jurisdiction. We don't currently monitor for changes automatically — see the roadmap for what's coming.

How does search work?

Search is full-text across all indexed sections of a jurisdiction — not just titles or headings. Use GET /jurisdictions/:id/search?q=keyword to search within a single jurisdiction. The global GET /search?q=keyword&state=CA endpoint searches across all jurisdictions that have already been cached. It does not search the full 37,000+ catalog — only the subset that has been crawled. Use GET /jurisdictions?cached=true to see what's available.

What jurisdictions are covered?

See the coverage map. We support any jurisdiction published through Municode (~4,000), American Legal (~3,500), eCode360 (~4,400), plus federal regulations and California state statutes.

What are the case law citations?

For every statute, we show court opinions that have cited it — displayed in reverse chronological order (most recent first). This helps connect the text of the law with how courts have interpreted it in practice.

Where does the case law data come from?

All case law data comes from CourtListener, a free and open legal database maintained by the Free Law Project. CourtListener is an extraordinary public resource — they collect, archive, and make searchable millions of court opinions from across the US federal and state court systems. We link directly to their records. We do not store, host, or reproduce any court opinions. If you find this useful, please consider supporting the Free Law Project.

How accurate are the case law citations?

They are best-effort and likely imperfect. We match statutes to court opinions using standard citation formats (e.g., "Cal. Pen. Code § 187"), but courts cite laws inconsistently. Our automated matching will miss relevant opinions and may include tangential results. This works best for federal and state statutes where citation formats are standardized. Municipal codes are not yet supported because there is no standard way courts cite them.

Is this legal advice?

No. Nothing provided by Open Legal Codes constitutes legal advice or a legal opinion. The statute text and case law citations are provided as-is for informational purposes. Always consult a qualified attorney for legal matters.