README.md

---
license: cc0-1.0
language: [en]
task_categories: [text-retrieval, question-answering]
size_categories: [10K<n<100K]
tags: [legal, law, court-rules, civil-procedure, us-courts, public-domain, rag, legal-nlp]
pretty_name: US Court Rules (federal and state, verbatim)
configs:
- config_name: all
  data_files:
  - data/federal/rules.jsonl.gz
  - data/state/*/rules.jsonl.gz
  default: true
- config_name: federal
  data_files: data/federal/rules.jsonl.gz
- config_name: state
  data_files: data/state/*/rules.jsonl.gz
dataset_info:
- config_name: all
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: string
  - name: level
    dtype: string
  - name: jurisdiction
    dtype: string
  - name: court
    dtype: string
  - name: rule_set
    dtype: string
  - name: rule_number
    dtype: string
  - name: citation
    dtype: string
  - name: title
    dtype: string
  - name: text
    dtype: string
  - name: source
    dtype: string
  - name: license
    dtype: string
  - name: retrieved_at
    dtype: string
  - name: extra
    dtype: string
- config_name: federal
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: string
  - name: level
    dtype: string
  - name: jurisdiction
    dtype: string
  - name: court
    dtype: string
  - name: rule_set
    dtype: string
  - name: rule_number
    dtype: string
  - name: citation
    dtype: string
  - name: title
    dtype: string
  - name: text
    dtype: string
  - name: source
    dtype: string
  - name: license
    dtype: string
  - name: retrieved_at
    dtype: string
  - name: extra
    dtype: string
- config_name: state
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: string
  - name: level
    dtype: string
  - name: jurisdiction
    dtype: string
  - name: court
    dtype: string
  - name: rule_set
    dtype: string
  - name: rule_number
    dtype: string
  - name: citation
    dtype: string
  - name: title
    dtype: string
  - name: text
    dtype: string
  - name: source
    dtype: string
  - name: license
    dtype: string
  - name: retrieved_at
    dtype: string
  - name: extra
    dtype: string
---

# US Court Rules — federal and state, held word for word

> **Code & tools:** [github.com/docketx](https://github.com/docketx) — [legal-scrambler](https://github.com/docketx/legal-scrambler) pseudonymises a case file on your own hardware before a frontier model sees it; [claude-for-legal](https://github.com/docketx/claude-for-legal) is the Claude Code plugin (`docketx-open-law`) that loads these datasets and checks citations against them.

**21,062 court rules** across **28 states and the federal courts**, in one uniform record.
Rules of civil and appellate procedure, evidence, criminal procedure, professional conduct, judicial
conduct, general rules and the local rule sets each court publishes for itself.

The text is **verbatim**. A rule paraphrased is a rule you cannot file against, so every row carries the
rule as its court published it, with the URL it came from.

## Coverage

| jurisdiction | rules | rule sets | sets |
|---|--:|--:|---|
| federal courts (`federal`) | 595 | 3 | `frcp`, `frap`, `fre` |
| Alaska (`ak`) | 816 | 18 | `civ`, `app`, `evcomm`, `bar` … |
| Alabama (`al`) | 615 | 12 | `Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure`, `Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure`, `Alabama Rules of Evidence`, `Alabama Rules of Appellate Procedure` … |
| California (`ca`) | 1,581 | 3 | `California Rules of Court`, `California Standards of Judicial Administration`, `California Ethics Standards for Neutral Arbitrators…` |
| Connecticut (`ct`) | 1,633 | 4 | `Connecticut Practice Book, Rules for the Superior C…`, `Connecticut Practice Book, Rules of Appellate Proce…`, `Connecticut Rules of Professional Conduct`, `Connecticut Code of Judicial Conduct` |
| Delaware (`de`) | 1,320 | 15 | `Delaware Court of Chancery Rules`, `Delaware Family Court Civil Rules`, `Delaware Superior Court Rules of Civil Procedure`, `Delaware Court of Common Pleas Civil Rules` … |
| Florida (`fl`) | 88 | 1 | `Florida Evidence Code (Florida Statutes Chapter 90)` |
| Iowa (`ia`) | 1,178 | 49 | `Iowa Court Rules, Chapter 1 — Rules of Civil Proced…`, `Iowa Court Rules, Chapter 2 — Rules of Criminal Pro…`, `Iowa Court Rules, Chapter 6 — Rules of Appellate Pr…`, `Iowa Court Rules, Chapter 5 — Rules of Evidence` … |
| Idaho (`id`) | 713 | 12 | `I.R.C.P.`, `I.R.F.L.P.`, `I.A.R.`, `I.C.R.` … |
| Illinois (`il`) | 478 | 2 | `Illinois Supreme Court Rules`, `Illinois Rules of Evidence` |
| Kansas (`ks`) | 458 | 16 | `ATTORNEY DISCIPLINE`, `DISTRICT COURTS`, `APPELLATE PRACTICE`, `CONTINUING JUDICIAL EDUCATION` … |
| Louisiana (`la`) | 122 | 3 | `Louisiana Rules for District Courts, Title IV (Rule…`, `Louisiana Rules for District Courts, Title II (Rule…`, `Louisiana Rules for District Courts, Title I (Rules…` |
| Maine (`me`) | 726 | 16 | `Maine Rules of Civil Procedure`, `Maine Rules of Probate Procedure`, `Maine Rules of Unified Criminal Procedure`, `Maine Rules of Evidence` … |
| Minnesota (`mn`) | 270 | 37 | `cp`, `gp`, `cr`, `ev` … |
| Montana (`mt`) | 307 | 7 | `Montana Rules of Civil Procedure`, `Montana Rules of Evidence`, `Montana Rules of Appellate Procedure`, `Montana Justice and City Court Rules of Civil Proce…` … |
| North Carolina (`nc`) | 185 | 3 | `North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure`, `North Carolina Rules of Evidence`, `North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure` |
| North Dakota (`nd`) | 692 | 18 | `NDRCIVP`, `NDREV`, `NDRCRIMP`, `NDSUPCTADMINR` … |
| Nebraska (`ne`) | 685 | 1 | `Nebraska Supreme Court Rules` |
| New Jersey (`nj`) | 995 | 1 | `Rules Governing the Courts of the State of New Jers…` |
| New York (`ny`) | 892 | 3 | `New York Uniform Rules for the Trial Courts (22 NYC…`, `New York Rules of the Chief Administrator of the Co…`, `New York Rules of the Chief Judge (22 NYCRR Parts 1…` |
| Ohio (`oh`) | 749 | 8 | `Ohio Rules of Superintendence`, `Supreme Court Rules of Practice`, `Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure`, `Ohio Rules of Criminal Procedure` … |
| Oregon (`or`) | 78 | 1 | `Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure` |
| Rhode Island (`ri`) | 367 | 6 | `Rhode Island Superior Court Rules of Civil Procedure`, `Rhode Island District Court Civil Rules`, `Rhode Island Rules of Evidence`, `Rhode Island Superior Court Rules of Criminal Proce…` … |
| South Dakota (`sd`) | 485 | 3 | `South Dakota Rules of Civil Procedure (SDCL ch. 15-…`, `South Dakota Rules of Appellate Procedure (SDCL ch.…`, `South Dakota Rules of Evidence (SDCL ch. 19-19)` |
| Texas (`tx`) | 1,553 | 7 | `trcp`, `trap`, `tre`, `txcprc` … |
| Utah (`ut`) | 1,176 | 10 | `SCRP`, `UCJA`, `URCP`, `URE` … |
| Virginia (`va`) | 315 | 1 | `Rules of the Supreme Court of Virginia` |
| Washington (`wa`) | 1,237 | 33 | `RAP`, `ELC`, `CR`, `CRLJ` … |
| Wisconsin (`wi`) | 753 | 2 | `Wisconsin Rules of Civil Procedure (chs. 801-847, s…`, `Wisconsin Rules of Evidence (chs. 901-911, statutor…` |

Every count is measured from the file in `data/` as of 2026-09-11.

## The record

Every row is the same shape, whatever court it came from — thirteen columns, all strings:

`id`, `level` (`federal` | `state`), `jurisdiction`, `court`, `rule_set`, `rule_number`, `citation`,
`title`, `text` (verbatim), `source` (the URL), `license`, `retrieved_at`, `extra`.

`rule_set` is whatever name the publishing court uses — a short code (`frcp`, `trcp`, `wa_rap`) where
the source is organised that way, the full title ("Delaware Court of Chancery Rules") where it is not.
`extra` is a JSON **string** (parse it with `json.loads`) carrying whatever else the source exposed —
chapter, article, caption, history note, edition — so that it can differ by court without breaking the
shared schema. `court` is null where the source did not name the promulgating court.

## Load it

```python
from datasets import load_dataset
rules   = load_dataset("docketx/court-rules")             # everything
federal = load_dataset("docketx/court-rules", "federal")  # FRCP, FRAP, FRE …
state   = load_dataset("docketx/court-rules", "state")    # every state set
```

## What is and is not here

Court **rules** only. US Code and state statute text live in `docketx/us-statutes`; 1,712 statute
rows were deliberately excluded from this build so that "court rules" means court rules. South Dakota
and Montana are the edge case — those two states codify their rules of procedure inside the statute
code itself (SDCL ch. 15-6, MCA Title 25), so their rules are cited as statutes but are court rules and
are held here. County and municipal local rules are the next layer and are being added jurisdiction by
jurisdiction; a state absent from the table above is one whose rules we have not yet verified from an
official source, not one whose rules we hold and withheld.

Public-domain government works. Part of the [DocketX](https://docketx.ai) open legal corpus, alongside
`docketx/us-caselaw` (10.8M opinions), `docketx/us-statutes`, `docketx/oral-arguments-us` and `docketx/us-judges`.