io.github.Kevinx702/legalcite (MCP)

This MCP server validates legal case citations found in text. It checks whether citations match real court records and flags hallucinated, fake, or misattributed case references using CourtListener data.

🛠️ Key Features

Verifies legal case citations against real court records
Flags fake/hallucinated and misattributed citations
Uses CourtListener (Free Law Project) as the underlying data source
Exposes citation verification via MCP: verify_citations(text)

🚀 Use Cases

Detect hallucinated legal case citations in generated or authored legal text
Verify that referenced cases correspond to actual U.S. court records (CourtListener)

⚡ Developer Benefits

Provides verify_citations(text) for MCP-integrated workflows
Uses a REST API for verification as well (e.g., GET /api/verify?text=<paragraph> or citation-specific queries)

⚠️ Limitations

Verification depends on CourtListener’s public U.S. court records as the source of truth

LegalCite

Stop your AI from citing fake cases. LegalCite checks every case citation in legal text against real court records (CourtListener) and flags hallucinated/fake or misattributed cites. A REST API + an MCP server.

Live: https://legalcite-one.vercel.app

Verify API: GET /api/verify?text=<paragraph> (or ?citation="410 U.S. 113"; also POST {text})

MCP: verify_citations(text) → npm legalcite-mcp

Data: CourtListener (Free Law Project) — free public U.S. court records.

verdict

meaning

real

the case exists and (if named) the name matches

not-found

no such case — likely hallucinated

mismatch

citation is real, but the case name in the text is wrong

How it resolves

Token-free (default): reporter-aware regex extracts citations → each resolved via CourtListener's public /c/{reporter}/{vol}/{page}/ finder (redirects to the opinion when real, 404 when not).

Token mode (optional): set COURTLISTENER_TOKEN (free) → uses CourtListener's citation-lookup endpoint (Eyecite extraction + full metadata).

It never fabricates — an unresolved citation is reported not-found, never invented.

Layout

code

api/verify.js          REST endpoint (quota + verify)
api/health.js          liveness + CourtListener check
api/checkout|key|stripe-webhook.js   Stripe Pro billing
lib/verify.js          citation extraction + CourtListener resolution (core)
lib/store.js           Redis quota + key store (fail-open without REDIS_URL)
lib/stripe.js          lazy Stripe client
mcp/server.js          MCP stdio server — verify_citations tool
public/                landing, docs, pricing, llms.txt
scripts/setup-stripe-product.js   one-time Stripe product/price (test key)

io.github.Kevinx702/legalcite