Terms of Use

1. The Service

JudicialFinder is a free, informational website that compiles public records about United States judges, federal and state, into a deeply cross-linked reference: who appointed each judge, how the Senate voted, whom they succeeded, where they studied, and how the courts connect. The Service is a compilation of public information. It is provided by 137 Finder LLC.

2. Not Legal Advice

JudicialFinder is an informational reference, not a law firm, and nothing on the Service is legal advice. Using the Service does not create an attorney-client relationship. The Service is not a substitute for independent legal research or the advice of a licensed attorney. Verify any fact against the primary source before relying on it for any legal, professional, or other purpose.

3. Not a Consumer Report (FCRA)

JudicialFinder is not a consumer reporting agency, and the information on the Service is not a "consumer report" within the meaning of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq. You may not use the Service, in whole or in part, to make any decision about credit, employment, insurance, housing or tenant screening, or any other purpose covered by the FCRA. We do not collect or provide this information for any such purpose.

4. Eligibility

You must be able to form a legally binding contract to use the Service. The Service is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13. By using the Service you represent that you meet these requirements.

5. Acceptable Use

You may access and use the Service for your personal, educational, informational, professional, and lawful purposes. You agree that you will not:

• engage in automated bulk extraction, scraping, or crawling of the Service beyond what is permitted for ordinary search-engine indexing under our robots.txt;
• interfere with, disrupt, or overload the Service, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to it or its infrastructure;
• copy or redistribute our compiled database, our written summaries, or our design as a bulk dataset or a competing product (see Section 6);
• present the data as an official court record, or in a way that misrepresents its source, currency, or accuracy;
• assert or imply that any judge has engaged in misconduct, or use the Service to harass, threaten, or defame any person;
• remove, obscure, or alter any attribution, copyright, license, or proprietary notice; or
• use the Service for any unlawful purpose, for an FCRA-covered purpose (Section 3), or in violation of these Terms.

The underlying public datasets are freely reusable from their original sources, as described in Section 6, and remain subject to those sources’ own terms (for example, the CourtListener bulk-data terms and the FJC Biographical Directory terms). These restrictions apply to our particular compilation and presentation of that data on the Service, not to the public sources themselves.

6. Intellectual Property

JudicialFinder is built on open, public data. The underlying datasets remain under their own terms and are freely reusable from their original sources: the Federal Judicial Center Biographical Directory (public domain), the CourtListener / Free Law Project bulk data (public domain), Wikidata (CC0 public-domain dedication), and public court-administration and National Center for State Courts data. Nothing here restricts your right to obtain and use that public data from its original source. Judge portraits are used under their own licenses (for example, public-domain or Creative Commons files from Wikimedia Commons), with attribution shown beside or with each image; those images remain subject to their own terms.

Our particular selection, arrangement, and compilation of that data into the JudicialFinder database, our original written summaries and descriptions, and the site’s design, look and feel, and software, are owned by 137 Finder LLC and protected by intellectual-property laws. "JudicialFinder" and our logos are trademarks of 137 Finder LLC. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, revocable license to view the Service for your personal, educational, informational, and professional use. We write our own summaries and do not reproduce third-party prose.

7. Accuracy, Neutrality, and No Assertion of Misconduct

We aim to present neutral, sourced facts and the relationships between them. We treat ideology only as a sourced proxy, for example the party of the appointing president, and never as our own editorial verdict. We do not assert that any judge has engaged in misconduct, we do not predict case outcomes, and we do not host user ratings of judges. If you believe a fact is wrong, please tell us (see our corrections policy) so we can verify it against the primary source and fix it.

8. No Warranty and Accuracy Disclaimer

THE SERVICE AND ALL DATA ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. While we strive for accuracy, we do not warrant that the data is accurate, complete, current, or error-free. Judicial records change over time and public sources contain errors. The Service is not an official court record. For any legal, professional, or official purpose you should independently verify information against the primary source. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

9. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, 137 Finder LLC, its members, and its agents will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss arising from your use of, or reliance on, the Service or its data. To the extent any liability cannot be disclaimed, our total aggregate liability is limited to one hundred U.S. dollars (US$100).

10. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless 137 Finder LLC and its members and agents from any claims, damages, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of your misuse of the Service or your violation of these Terms.

11. Third-Party Content and Links

The Service incorporates data from third-party sources and may link to third-party websites, including our sibling site PolitiFinder where the data genuinely connects. We do not control and are not responsible for third-party content, sources, or sites, and their inclusion does not imply endorsement.

12. Privacy

Your use of the Service is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

13. Copyright Complaints

If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, please follow the process in our Copyright and Takedown Policy.

14. Changes to the Service and These Terms

We may modify or discontinue the Service, and may update these Terms, at any time. Material changes will be reflected by the "Last updated" date above. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

15. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Before starting any formal proceeding, you agree to first contact us at support@judicialfinder.com and try in good faith to resolve the matter informally.

If the matter is not resolved informally within sixty days, any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered under the rules of a recognized arbitration provider, seated in Massachusetts, rather than in court, except that either party may bring an individual claim in small-claims court. Disputes will be resolved only on an individual basis; class actions and consolidated or representative proceedings are not permitted. If this arbitration provision is held unenforceable, the state and federal courts located in Massachusetts will have exclusive jurisdiction and venue, and you consent to that jurisdiction.

16. Miscellaneous

If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them in connection with a sale or reorganization of the business. These Terms are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service.

17. Contact

137 Finder LLC, doing business as JudicialFinder. Contact us by email at support@judicialfinder.com.