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Security report for courtlistener.com

Free Law Project · Non-profit · N/a

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

82/100

Risk levelLow

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

CourtListener is a well-established free legal research platform sponsored by the non-profit Free Law Project. It provides extensive access to millions of legal opinions, PACER documents, oral arguments, and judge information, targeting legal professionals, academics, journalists, and the general public. The platform emphasizes open access and transparency, supported by donations and memberships. Technically, the website uses modern web technologies including jQuery, Bootstrap, D3.js, and privacy-focused analytics (Plausible). The site is well-structured, mobile-optimized, and SEO-friendly, offering a professional user experience. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and secure form handling, though explicit security headers and cookie consent mechanisms could be improved. The absence of WHOIS data reduces transparency but does not detract from the site's legitimacy given its open source nature and non-profit backing. Overall, CourtListener represents a trustworthy and valuable resource in the legal research domain.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

3 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

  2. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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Keep watching courtlistener.com

This scan found 15 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
82
Security headers
85
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
82

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

CourtListener operates as a non-profit entity providing free legal data and research tools. Its market position is strong within the legal research ecosystem, leveraging partnerships with Free Law Project and open source communities. The business model relies on donations, memberships, and possibly consulting services. The target audience includes legal professionals, academics, journalists, and the public seeking legal information. The platform's extensive data coverage and API offerings indicate a mature service with growth potential. Strategic partnerships with free.law and active open source projects enhance its ecosystem and credibility.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and secure input handling. However, the lack of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and absence of a cookie consent mechanism indicate areas for improvement in compliance and defense-in-depth. The presence of a public vulnerability disclosure policy is a positive indicator of security culture and incident response readiness. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analysis. The missing WHOIS data is a transparency concern but does not directly impact technical security.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a cookie consent banner to enhance GDPR compliance and user privacy transparency.
  2. Add and configure security headers like Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Publish a security.txt file at the root domain to facilitate vulnerability reporting.
  4. Improve WHOIS transparency if possible by ensuring domain registration details are publicly available or justified.
  5. Continue to monitor and update third-party libraries to avoid vulnerabilities and maintain performance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Free Law Project
Description
CourtListener is a free legal research website containing millions of legal opinions from federal and state courts. It is sponsored by the non-profit Free Law Project, which seeks to provide free access to primary legal materials, develop legal research tools, and support academic research on legal corpora.
Key services
Legal case law search, PACER document archive, Oral arguments search, Judge database, Financial disclosures search, APIs and bulk data services
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.4.1, Bootstrap 3.3.0, D3.js, Plottable.js, Font Awesome, Plausible Analytics
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Secure form inputs
  • No exposed sensitive data

Analytics and tracking

Services
Plausible Analytics
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Plausible Analytics
Transparency
excellent

Site quality

Design
excellent
User experience
excellent
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
excellent
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is a comprehensive legal research platform sponsored by a non-profit organization.
  2. Content is rich, well-structured, and professionally presented.
  3. No signs of adult or inappropriate content.
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found; contact is via web form.
  5. Security policies and vulnerability disclosure are publicly available.
  6. No WHOIS data available, which reduces transparency but does not directly indicate malicious intent.
  7. Uses modern web technologies and analytics with privacy-respecting tools.
  8. No cookie consent mechanism detected, which may be a GDPR compliance gap.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a solid technology stack with jQuery, Bootstrap 3, D3.js, and Plottable.js for data visualization. It employs Plausible Analytics, a privacy-focused analytics tool, indicating a commitment to user privacy. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible with semantic HTML and ARIA attributes. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization in asset loading and caching. The absence of a CMS suggests a custom or static site approach, which can enhance security and performance but requires disciplined maintenance. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports the site's mission effectively with modern tools and good practices.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 81/100Low24 findingsView report
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