| --- |
| 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`. |
|
|
