Where to find New York cases online

Free New York caselaw search on LawDiver. Find New York opinions, read full text, download official PDFs, and search the New York caselaw API. Browse all guides · New York research guide

Free caselaw search for New York

Search New York caselaw for free on LawDiver. This page searches New York state courts — the New York Supreme Court and its appellate courts — with an option on the search form to add related federal authority (District Court, D. New York, District Court, E.D. New York, District Court, N.D. New York, District Court, S.D. New York and the Second Circuit, plus the U.S. Supreme Court). Type a citation or case name for a known decision, or describe the legal issue in plain English and let semantic search find opinions that address it. Every opinion opens to full text with citation data, holdings, and the official court PDF. No subscription and no login.

New York coverage centers on the New York Supreme Court and its intermediate appellate courts, plus the related federal courts when that scope is chosen. Search is over full opinion text with Boolean, citation, case-name, and semantic engines. The app includes the 5 appellate court(s) listed in the jurisdiction picker. Federal district coverage adds 5 district court(s) sitting in New York. Each result shows the official citation, court, date, holdings, and a link to the court PDF.

Related federal coverage is available on the same form: the search can include District Court, D. New York, District Court, E.D. New York, District Court, N.D. New York and the Second Circuit, plus the U.S. Supreme Court, when the scope is set to “New York and related federal courts.” Search all federal cases instead · Search Supreme Court cases.

LawDiver legal research API·API docs·New York caselaw API·Search connectors·MCP server·CiteCheck

How to search New York cases

Find a New York opinion by citation or by describing the issue.

  1. 1.Confirm New York scope

    This page is pre-set to New York courts only. The jurisdiction chip should read New York. Switch it to “New York and related federal courts” when you also need federal district, circuit, and Supreme Court authority over that state.

  2. 2.Enter a citation, case name, or issue

    Examples: a regional reporter cite, new york supreme court qualified immunity, or landlord duty to mitigate. Boolean, phrase, and proximity connectors work; the rules are at /docs/search-connectors.

  3. 3.Read the opinion

    Open a hit to read the full text with citation, date, court, holdings, and treatment signals, and download the official court PDF.

  4. 4.Export or call the API

    Save the result set for AI grounding, or query the caselaw API with scope state_only and states [NY] to automate the same search.

Where to find caselaw for New York

The official sources for New York opinions are the New York Supreme Court and its intermediate appellate courts. LawDiver mirrors those opinions for free search with full text, holdings, and official PDFs — no subscription and no login. Federal opinions that interpret New York law sit in this database too; include them by setting the scope to “New York and related federal courts.”

For connector syntax — AND, OR, /s, /p, w/n, phrases — read the search connectors and boolean operators guide. LawDiver is free legal research and a free Westlaw alternative, a cheap Westlaw alternative, a free Lexis alternative, and a cheap Lexis alternative for primary law.

New York caselaw API

The New York caselaw API lets you query the same New York corpus from your own app. It is the LawDiver legal research API filtered to New York — search, retrieve, cite-check, and download PDFs over the same ten million opinions the site searches, free during the current rollout. Base URL https://lawdiver.com/api/v1. Authentication is an API key in Authorization: Bearer …. See the legal research API and API docs. Responses are JSON with opinion metadata, holdings, text, and citation data.

cURL — New York state courts only

curl -s https://lawdiver.com/api/v1/search/caselaw \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LAWDIVER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"your search here","scope":{"kind":"state_only","states":["NY"]},"searchType":"auto"}' | jq

cURL — New York plus related federal

curl -s https://lawdiver.com/api/v1/search/caselaw \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LAWDIVER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"qualified immunity","scope":{"kind":"state_plus_federal","states":["NY"]},"searchType":"semantic"}' | jq

Fetch — New York caselaw API

const res = await fetch("https://lawdiver.com/api/v1/search/caselaw", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { Authorization: "Bearer " + process.env.LAWDIVER_API_KEY, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ query: "premises liability invitee", scope: { kind: "state_only", states: ["NY"] }, searchType: "auto" })
});
const data = await res.json();

To cite-check a brief against New York authorities, send it to POST /api/v1/citecheck/documents or paste into CiteCheck. To put New York caselaw into an AI agent, use the LawDiver MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor. For bulk licensing, see bulk data.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I find free New York caselaw?

On LawDiver at /caselaw/new-york. Search New York opinions by citation, case name, or a plain-English description of the legal issue, then read the full text and download the official PDF with no login.

Is LawDiver a free Westlaw alternative for New York cases?

Yes. LawDiver is a free Westlaw alternative and a free Lexis alternative for New York court opinions, with full text and official PDFs at no cost and no subscription. It covers primary law reading and searching; it does not bundle every commercial treatise.

How do I look up a New York case by citation?

Open /caselaw/new-york and type the regional or official citation for that state. The citation engine finds the opinion directly and shows its official PDF and later treatment.

Can I search New York cases by describing the legal issue?

Yes. LawDiver runs semantic search over New York opinion text, so a plain-English question about the issue returns relevant opinions even when they use different wording. Boolean, phrase, and proximity search also work.

Does LawDiver include federal cases related to New York?

Yes. On /caselaw/new-york, switch the scope to “New York and related federal courts” to add the federal district courts sitting in New York, the Second Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court to the same result set.

Can I download the official PDF of a New York opinion?

Yes. Every New York opinion on LawDiver links to the official court PDF where available, and a selection of cases can be exported as one structured research PDF.

Is there a New York caselaw API?

Yes. The LawDiver New York caselaw API is part of the legal research API at /docs/api and is free during the current rollout. Query with scope state_only and states [NY] for New York only, or state_plus_federal to include related federal courts. See /products/api and the code samples below.

Can I check New York citations?

Yes. CiteCheck at /products/citecheck and the API verifier check whether a New York citation is still good law against the live corpus.

Looking for operators? See the boolean search operators guide, or the API documentation.