Court Delta

"Do I have to go to court for this ticket?" — answered from the citation itself. For someone holding a paper North Carolina (NC) citation, BEFORE their case is searchable. Returns waiver eligibility per charge (waivable / mandatory / conditional) plus how to ask for a reduction or dismissal. FAST — no court-portal request, unlike the other tools. THE OUTPUT IS OPTIONS WITH CONSEQUENCES, NOT A RECOMMENDATION. Waiving is a guilty plea to the charge as written (an admission of responsibility on an infraction); requesting a reduction asks the District Attorney to change the charge before any plea; the two are alternatives. Relay them as choices for the person to make, and never tell them which to pick. TIMING IS PART OF THE ANSWER, NOT A DETAIL. Both routes have to be completed BEFORE THE CASE IS CALLED, not merely on or before the court date — once the calendar reaches it the clerk is working a courtroom docket, and nothing pauses the hearing. Read `citationOptions.state` before saying anything about appearing: "lastDay" the court date is TODAY. It can still be settled with the clerk, but only before the case is called, and there is NO time left to file online — do not offer Guide & File. If the clerk cannot be reached in time, the person should go to court. "noCourtDate" no upcoming hearing, OR today's has already been called. Do NOT assert a failure to appear — you cannot see the courtroom and they may have attended that morning. Say: if they already went, this does not apply; if they missed it, contact the Clerk of Superior Court, because a missed date can become an FTA. "mandatory" | "conditional" | "onlineWaivable" | "inPersonWaivable" as before. NEVER REPORT "no appearance needed" ON "lastDay" OR "noCourtDate", however many of the individual charges come back `waivable`. Missing a court date on a Chapter 20 case means an order for arrest and a G.S. 20-24.1 revocation that lasts until the charge is actually disposed. `howToRequest` already carries the right wording for every state — relaying it verbatim is the safe move. IF THE USER HAS A CASE NUMBER, USE `lookup_court_case` INSTEAD. It runs these same rules on the real charges and also gives the court date and the amount owed. This tool is for when there is no case number yet. THE STATUTE DRIVES THE ANSWER. Pass the G.S. number printed on the citation (e.g. "20-141(J1)", "G.S. 20-127(D)"). Without a parseable statute a charge cannot be classified — ask the user to read the "G.S." line off their citation rather than guessing from the offense name. `unclassified` lists any charge that fell through. PASS EVERY CHARGE ON THE CITATION, not just the one asked about. Eligibility is computed ACROSS the citation: one mandatory charge forces an appearance for all of them. Reporting on a single charge in isolation gives the wrong answer — a real Wake case has two waivable charges and one DWLR, and the correct answer is "you must appear". `viaCompanionCharge: true` on a charge means exactly that: it would be waivable on its own, but AOC mandatory-appearance item #39 makes every violation on a citation mandatory once ANY violation on it is. Never tell someone they can pay such a charge off separately or handle it by mail — the whole citation must be appeared on. Say which charge is forcing it, since that is usually the one they want to ask the District Attorney about. SPEED CHANGES THE ANSWER. With no charged speed a speeding charge comes back `conditional`, not waivable: over 80 mph, or more than 15 over while over 55, is mandatory. Pass `actual_speed`/`speed_limit` if known — or just pass the offense line verbatim ("SPEEDING 85 IN A 65"), which is parsed for the speed. PASS `offense` VERBATIM FROM THE CITATION for every charge, not a paraphrase. A few rules cannot be decided from the statute number alone and are read off the offense text: texting is waivable UNLESS it was while operating a school bus, and a registration or title violation is waivable UNLESS it involves stolen, altered or fictitious plates or certificates. Both statutes are the same either way, so a paraphrase that drops "school bus" or "fictitious" silently turns a mandatory appearance into "waivable". If the user summarises rather than quotes, ask for the exact wording on the citation before answering. `county` (optional) decides the reduction path: participating counties get NC's online Guide & File link, others get the in-person District Attorney route. PASS `court_date` WHENEVER THE CITATION SHOWS ONE (YYYY-MM-DD), AND PASS THE REAL ONE. Without it the answer assumes there is no upcoming hearing and comes back as "contact the Clerk of Superior Court" instead of the resolution options — an open citation with no court date often means a failure to appear has already happened. It also unlocks `reductionSubmitBy`: NC's online reduction request must be filed SEVERAL BUSINESS DAYS BEFORE the court date, so without the date that cutoff is silently missing rather than reported. The date is read against the Eastern-time clock, so it changes the answer in both directions: a date already past — INCLUDING EARLIER THE SAME DAY — returns "noCourtDate", and a date that is TODAY returns "lastDay". Guessing or rounding the date is therefore not a harmless approximation; it is how someone gets told a ticket is cleanly waivable on the morning of their hearing. `citationOptions.reduction` is a PRE-SCREEN, never an eligibility verdict. Each gate is pass / fail / unknown, and `unknown` means the court record cannot decide it — report it as unknown, never as a disqualification. Four of the program's criteria (age 18+, valid NC licence, non-CDL, NCDMV compliance on a companion charge) are not in court data at all and come back in `userMustConfirm` for the person to check. The 10-19 mph band and the 80 mph ceiling are AOC / District Atto… [609 more characters not shown]

Is this court-payment demand a scam? Assesses a contact someone received against known North Carolina (NC) court-scam patterns. Use this when someone describes being contacted about jury duty they missed, unpaid court costs, a warrant, or a bond — and being asked to pay. Gather what they can tell you and pass it in; every field is optional, and a partial description still gets an assessment. THE ASSESSMENT IS DETERMINISTIC, NOT A JUDGEMENT CALL. Upstream rules decide the severity; you are not being asked to estimate risk yourself. Report what comes back. **`severity` 2 = "Matches known scam patterns" (LIKELY SCAM).** A payment method NC courts never accept, a jury-duty demand above the $50 statutory penalty, or a cold contact that also carries a payment demand or arrest threat. **`severity` 1 = "Matches some known scam patterns" (USE CAUTION).** **`severity` 0 does NOT mean the contact is legitimate.** It means none of the patterns this tool checks for were present in what was described. Say exactly that — never "this looks legitimate", never "you're fine". Someone reading a false all-clear may send money. The safe next step is always to verify independently through the court, using a number they look up themselves. Pass the ids listed in the parameter types verbatim — they are a fixed vocabulary. `behavioral_flags` accepts any of: threatened_immediate_arrest, claimed_to_be_official, used_target_personal_details, spoofed_caller_id, gave_callback_number, pressured_to_stay_on_line, asked_to_stay_on_phone_during_purchase, requested_ssn_or_financial_info, transferred_to_supervisor_or_clerk, background_noise_office_or_radio, asked_to_meet_in_person, after_hours_contact, demanded_secrecy. `raw_description` is anything else they were told, in their own words. It is used for the assessment and to derive category tags; the text itself is not stored. IF THEY GAVE A CASE OR CITATION NUMBER, `caseLookup.status` comes back `"pending"` — this tool does not fetch the record. Call `lookup_court_case` with that number to check whether it is real, and read the two answers together: a demand referencing a case that does not exist is strong evidence of a scam, and a real case number does NOT make the payment demand legitimate (scammers cite real numbers). Always surface `facts` (what NC courts actually do) and `reporting` (where to report). If they already sent money, point them to the FBI IC3 link in `reporting`. WHEN SEVERITY IS 1 OR 2, ASK THEM TO REPORT IT. `ask_them_to_report` carries the ask and the reason: reports are what show which scams are running in which NC counties right now, so the next person who checks gets a current warning. Their minute protects someone else. Make it an offer — if they decline, drop it. At severity 0 there is no such field and you must not ask, because nothing has been established as a scam. Every link you pass on — this one and the NCDOJ / FTC / IC3 ones — must keep its `https://` prefix so it is clickable. `reporting.court_delta.markdown` is already formatted for that; use it verbatim rather than retyping the domain. `reporting.court_delta.url` is a scam-trend tracker, NOT a law-enforcement report — never present it as one, or as a substitute for the NCDOJ / FTC / IC3 routes. Never asks for or transmits a name or phone number. A de-identified record — claim type, channel, county, payment method, flags, amount, severity — is stored so scam trends can be tracked. NC only. Informational, not legal advice.

Which expunction statute and AOC petition form fit how each charge ended. Reads the case's actual per-charge dispositions and routes each one to the statute(s) that cover that outcome, with the petition and instruction-sheet links, where to file, and the fee. Call with no `caseNumber` to get the whole statute table. CHECK `automaticExpunction` FIRST AND LEAD YOUR ANSWER WITH IT. Under G.S. 15A-146(a4), a case where EVERY charge was dismissed without leave, dismissed by the court, or ended in a not-guilty/not-responsible finding — all disposed on or after 12/01/2021, with no felony dismissed pursuant to a plea agreement — is expunged BY OPERATION OF LAW. NOTHING IS FILED. No petition, no form, no fee. When `applies` is true, the correct answer to "what do I file?" is "nothing". Do NOT lead with the petition forms; sending someone to a clerk with a $175 fee discussion when the charges expunge themselves for free is a wrong answer. The petition routing is the fallback if the automatic expunction does not in fact occur. THE TIMING DEPENDS ON `regime`, AND THE WINDOW IS NOT ALWAYS AVAILABLE. Automatic expunction has been through three implementations, so read `regime` before quoting any date, and check `windowDeterminable` before using `windowOpens`/`windowCloses`: "current" — the 180-210 day rule. `windowOpens`/`windowCloses` are populated: say "it happens on its own between <windowOpens> and <windowCloses>". "original" — disposed 12/01/2021-07/31/2022, when the programme ran immediately with no delay. Windows are NULL. Say it should ALREADY have happened. "backlog" — disposed during the statutory suspension (08/01/2022-07/01/2024). Windows are NULL. NCAOC had until 07/01/2025 to clear the backlog. Say that, and that a case still showing is a question for the clerk. "pre_a4" — outside the subsection; `applies` is false anyway. NEVER invent a window when `windowDeterminable` is false. A fabricated past date is worse than saying the timing does not reduce to one — it tells someone a deadline passed when no deadline ever ran. The `notes` array already carries the right wording for each regime; prefer it to composing your own. POINT AT THE CLERK IN THE COUNTY OF DISPOSITION, by name — it is in `fileInCounty`. Under G.S. 15A-151(a2) a clerk may not disclose an expunged record from any other county, so "ask the clerk" without naming which one sends people somewhere that cannot help them. AN (a4) EXPUNCTION IS NARROWER THAN PEOPLE EXPECT, and both limits belong in your answer: G.S. 15A-150(b)'s requirement that the clerk notify other agencies does NOT apply to automatic expunctions, so other agencies may never learn of it and are not obliged to clear their own records; and under G.S. 15A-151(a1)/(a2) the record is not destroyed — it is retained by the clerk as a confidential file, with AOC holding electronic copies, still disclosable to the person, their attorney, the district attorney and the Appellate Defender. "Gone from the public index" is not "gone". THIS IS THE ONE DETERMINATION THIS TOOL MAKES, and it is safe precisely because (a4) turns only on how the charges on THIS case ended — which the record shows in full — and not on anything person-level. `determinable: false` means the record could not answer (a charge with no disposition, an unrecognised disposition); say so rather than treating it as a "no". EVERYTHING ELSE ROUTES. IT DOES NOT DECIDE ELIGIBILITY, and you must not present it as doing so. Three reasons, all of which belong in your answer when someone asks "can I get this expunged?": - Eligibility is PERSON-level. A disqualifying conviction anywhere bars relief, and this data cannot confirm identity — date of birth is rarely published and is masked to the year, and common names collide heavily. - A prior expunction can itself disqualify, and an expunged case is REMOVED from the court record — so the very thing that would disqualify someone is invisible here. - Some expunctions bar future ones, so which statute you petition under matters. The North Carolina (NC) Courts guidance is to consult an attorney about that choice. "NOT YET ELIGIBLE" IS SAFE TO SAY when a waiting period plainly hasn't run — that is arithmetic. "Eligible" is never safe to say. WAITING PERIODS come from G.S. 15A-145.5(c): 3 years for one nonviolent misdemeanour, 7 for more than one, 10 for one nonviolent felony, 15 for breaking or entering under 14-54(a), 20 for two or three felonies. THE DATE RETURNED IS THE EARLIEST POSSIBLE. The statute runs the clock from conviction OR from completion of any active sentence, probation or post-release supervision, WHICHEVER IS LATER — and completion dates are not in this record. Say the date is a floor, not a target. `waiting` CARRIES TWO DATES. ALWAYS LEAD WITH `earliestConservative`, and NEVER quote `earliestAlternative` on its own when the two differ. - `earliestConservative` — the later, safer date. Lead with this. - `earliestAlternative` — the earlier date, ignoring any sentence. Labelled, never the headline. - `clockRunsFrom` — the date the arithmetic started. Equal dates (fine-only, or no supervision visible in the record) — give one date. WHAT THE TWO DATES MEAN DEPENDS ON THE SUBSECTION, and only one of them is genuinely ambiguous: - **15A-145.5(c)(1)a** (3 years, one nonviolent misdemeanour) reads "three years after the date of the conviction or when any active sentence, period of probation, or post-release supervision has been served, whichever occurs later." That admits two readings — later-of-the-two, or three-years-from-completion — and the School of Government flags it as unsettled. Here the alternative really is a second legal reading. A clerk may be applying either. - **(c)(1)b, (c)(2)a, (c)(2)a1, (c)(2)b** (7/10/15/20 years) read "N years after the date of conviction or N years after the sentence has been … [4259 more characters not shown]

What this Court Delta server covers, with example questions. Call this ONLY when the user asks what this server / connector can do, what data it has, or how to use it. It is NOT a step toward answering a court question — if the user asked about a case, a citation, a person, or a bond, skip this and call `lookup_court_case` / `search_cases_by_party` directly. Calling this first just delays their answer. Takes no arguments. Returns static text; makes no court-portal request.

Which courthouse, where it is, when it's open, and where to park. For "I have court on Tuesday — where do I go?". Give a `county` ("Wake") or a `caseNumber` to derive it. From the North Carolina (NC) AOC directory plus Google Places. RETURNS `locations[]`, NOT ONE COURTHOUSE. 19 counties have several venues and picking one silently is a real way to send someone to the wrong building. Wake has a Courthouse, a Justice Center AND a Clerk's office; Guilford has courthouses in Greensboro and High Point, in different cities. `multipleLocations:true` means you must disambiguate rather than assume. TO PICK THE RIGHT ONE, USE THE CASE'S HEARING LOCATION. `lookup_court_case` returns `upcomingHearings[].location` (e.g. "Wake Co. Justice Center"), which usually names the building. Match it against `locations[].name`, allowing for "Co." vs "County". BUT DO NOT FORCE A MATCH: measured on real hearings, a third have `"No location"` at all, and several use names that don't correspond to the directory — "Buncombe Co. Judicial Complex" is the Buncombe County Courthouse, "Alamance Co. JB Allen" is the Alamance County Courthouse. When it doesn't map cleanly, SHOW THE OPTIONS and let the user choose. Guessing between Wake's Courthouse and its Justice Center is exactly the wrong place to be confident. HOURS ARE REAL — and watch for lunch closures. A value like "08:30-12:30, 13:30-17:00" means the venue SHUTS between those times; someone arriving at 1pm in Nash, Wilson, Cherokee or either Guilford courthouse finds a locked door. Say the closure out loud. Courts also close on NC state holidays, which these hours do not encode. `parkingAttributes` are what the venue publishes — "freeLot", "paidGarage", "onSite" etc. ABSENT MEANS NOT CLAIMED, NOT "no parking". `nearbyParking` (actual lots near the building, with `distanceMeters` and a `mapsUrl`) and `parkingMapUrl` (a static map image, courthouse marked "C") appear on AT MOST ONE location — the one the scrape described. Their absence on the others is not a statement about them. `accessibility` is published PER BUILDING — "wheelchairEntrance", "wheelchairParking", "wheelchairRestroom", "wheelchairSeating", "restroom". Report what a venue claims. An ABSENT flag is NOT a claim that the feature is missing: every venue claims wheelchair entrance, parking and restroom, but only 15 of 121 claim accessible SEATING, and no venue publishes assisted-listening data at all. For anyone who depends on a specific accommodation, give what's listed and say to call the courthouse to confirm the rest — do not report "not accessible" from a missing flag. `source:"nccourts-scrape"` means the directory had no entry and this fell back to the live site, so `hours` will be empty — tell the user to call rather than inventing them. All 100 counties are currently in the directory, so this should be rare. THIS IS LOCATION INFO, NOT CASE INFO — nothing about hearings, charges or status; use `lookup_court_case` for those. Cite the disclaimer: verify with the clerk before travelling. Read-only. NC only.

Driver's-licence points under G.S. 20-16(c) — a COMPARATOR, not a lookup. Returns what each possible outcome would cost: convicted as charged, reduced to improper equipment, prayer for judgment, or dismissed. That comparison is the useful answer; a single number is not. Fast — no court-portal request. LICENCE POINTS ONLY. Insurance (SDIP) points are a SEPARATE system with different values, set by the Rate Bureau rather than statute, and are NOT included. If someone asks what a ticket will do to their premium, say this tool doesn't cover that. THE PJC SCENARIO'S ZERO HAS TWO EXCEPTIONS and you must state them. Under G.S. 20-4.01(4a) a prayer for judgment counts as a CONVICTION — so it does carry points — if it is the THIRD OR SUBSEQUENT PJC within any five-year period, or for ANY PJC where the driver holds a CDL or the offence was in a commercial vehicle. Prior PJC history is not in court records here, so the 0 assumes neither applies. `unmatched[]` LISTS CHARGES THAT COULD NOT BE SCORED — always mention them. The schedule has a real "All other moving violations = 2" row, so a charge that matched the catch-all (`viaCatchAll: true`) and one we failed to classify are different things; do not let a total silently omit either. Non-Chapter-20 charges score nothing at all — a drug or assault charge is not a traffic offence and gets no points. Non-moving violations (improper equipment, parking, inspection, registration, adult seat belt) are 0, which is why "reduce to improper equipment" is the standard outcome people seek. SPEEDING TURNS ON ABSOLUTE SPEED, not how far over the limit: the schedule row is "speeding in excess of 55 mph = 3". 50-in-a-45 is 2, not 3. Pass `actual_speed` when known — without it a speeding charge cannot be scored and lands in `unmatched`. POINTS ARE NOT THE WHOLE CONSEQUENCE OF A SPEEDING CONVICTION. Check `excessiveSpeedingSuspension` and report it whenever it applies. G.S. 20-16.1(a) mandates a 30-DAY LICENCE SUSPENSION, imposed by the Division without a preliminary hearing, on conviction of either (i) more than 15 mph over the limit while ALSO above 55 mph, or (ii) any speed above 80 mph. This is separate from and additional to points. An 85-in-a-65 is only 3 points but ALSO costs the licence for 30 days — reporting the 3 alone is a true number that leaves a false impression. Pass `speed_limit` as well as `actual_speed`: without the limit, branch (i) cannot be assessed and the tool abstains (`determinable: false`) rather than implying there is no suspension. That suspension attaches only ON CONVICTION, so a reduction, PJC or dismissal avoids it — which is usually the single biggest factor in the comparison, bigger than the points. G.S. 20-16.1(b)(1): on a FIRST conviction only, the trial judge "may when feasible" allow a limited driving privilege for purposes reasonably connected with the HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE of the person convicted and their family. There is no listed "work" privilege — employment is commonly argued under welfare, so do not describe it as a work privilege as though the statute named one. The permit is valid for 30 days from issuance and the judge may restrict days, hours, vehicle types and routes. THIS TOOL CANNOT TELL WHETHER IT WOULD BE A FIRST CONVICTION — prior convictions are not in the record, so the seven-year look-back cannot be applied. The privilege is discretionary and conditioned on feasibility. Answer "you can ask the court", never "yes, you will get one". Do NOT import limited-privilege rules from the DWI statute (G.S. 20-179.3); there is no "hard suspension period" concept in G.S. 20-16.1. SUSPENSION FOR ACCUMULATED POINTS is a different mechanism again, with TWO thresholds (G.S. 20-16(a)(5)): 12 points in three years, and 8 in the three years after a licence is reinstated. Pass `priorPoints` and `recentlyReinstated` if the user knows them — neither is in any court record, so without them no suspension assessment is made. Set `commercialLicense` or `outOfStateLicense` and the tool REFUSES rather than guessing: a separate, higher schedule applies to CDL holders, and an out-of-state conviction is assessed by the licensing state under the Driver Licence Compact. Informational, not legal advice. Whether a reduction or PJC is actually available is a decision for the District Attorney and the court.

Triage a SHORT list of people for North Carolina (NC) court cases. Built for the "here is a list of names, which ones have cases?" question — a CSV of applicants, tenants, or bond clients. **This server cannot accept file uploads:** read the file yourself and pass the names as an array. Returns COUNTS AND FACETS PER NAME, not case detail — `matched`, `case_count`, `counties`, `case_types`, `case_numbers` (first few), `portal_truncated`. That keeps a 5-name response readable. Once you know which names are interesting, call `search_cases_by_party` (full rows) or `lookup_court_case` (one case) on those. LIMITS, and why they are low: each name runs a LIVE portal search, and the upstream session token is shared by every user of this service — a wide fan-out risks blocking it for everyone. Max 5 names per call, 3 at a time. Split a longer list across calls. SLOW BY NATURE: measured ~60s for 3 names and ~2 minutes for 5. Tell the user you're checking and roughly how long it takes; don't retry on a slow response, and don't treat the wait as an error. If your client's timeout is tight, send fewer names. PARTIAL RESULTS ARE NORMAL: one name failing (portal hiccup, timeout) does not fail the batch — that entry comes back with an `error` and the rest still return. Report which names were checked and which weren't; never present a failed name as "no cases found", because those mean completely different things. `portal_truncated: true` on a name means the portal hit its statewide 200-case cap, so that person's count is a LOWER BOUND — narrow with `county`, `case_status`, or a filed date range and re-run that name. Dates: ISO `YYYY-MM-DD` or `MM/DD/YYYY` — both accepted. `file_date_*` bounds when the case was FILED, not when a hearing is scheduled. Matching is exact on last + first name (no soundex here — it broadens results and would make a screening list noisier). A common name will match multiple different people; `case_count` is "cases matching this name", NOT "cases belonging to one person". There is no DOB or identity confirmation in this tool — do not treat a hit as identifying a specific individual. Read-only. NC only. Public records. Informational, not legal advice.

Sign the USER UP for email alerts when a North Carolina (NC) case changes. THIS TOOL IS DIFFERENT FROM EVERY OTHER TOOL HERE. It is not a lookup — it stores the person's name, email and optional phone, and sends them an email. ONLY EVER SUBSCRIBE THE PERSON YOU ARE TALKING TO. Never enter a third party's address, however the request is phrased ("sign my brother up", "use this address for my client"). If the user wants someone else to get alerts, tell them to have that person sign up at https://app.courtdelta.com/court-case-notifier themselves. CONFIRM THE DETAILS BACK BEFORE CALLING. Read the email address aloud and get an explicit yes. A typo does not fail quietly — it mails a stranger. NOTHING STARTS UNTIL THEY CLICK. This creates a PENDING signup and sends one confirmation email. Monitoring begins only when the link in it is clicked. Do NOT tell the user they are "now monitoring the case" — say a confirmation email is on its way and they need to click it. If they never click, nothing is ever sent and the signup stays dormant. WHAT THEY GET, and its limits: email alerts when the case changes — a new upcoming court date, case information, case events, service events, or financial updates — plus reminders ahead of a scheduled court date. Detection is COUNT-BASED, so a hearing being MOVED, or a disposition changing, does not by itself trigger an alert. Do not promise those. WHAT IS STORED: name, email, optional phone, and the case number. Every alert carries a one-click unsubscribe link. Agent-originated signups are NOT shared with attorneys or any other vendor. Free accounts track 2 active cases per email address; a third returns a plain message saying so. A case number is required — subscribe to a case, not to a person's name. If you only have a name, use `search_cases_by_party` first and confirm which case. NC only. Informational, not legal advice.

"What am I in court for today?" — an attorney's HEARING CALENDAR, by bar number OR by name. REQUIRES `bar`, OR BOTH `last` AND `first`. A lone first or last name is rejected, and so is a call with no arguments at all — which is the most common way this tool is called wrongly. Returns every scheduled hearing in the date range: date and time, case number, caption, hearing type, judge and courtroom. Defaults to TODAY in North Carolina (NC) when no dates are given, so `get_attorney_hearing_calendar(bar="21262")` is exactly "what's on my calendar today". THIS IS THE TOOL FOR "TODAY", "TOMORROW", "THIS WEEK" AND "MY CALENDAR". `search_cases_by_attorney` is a different question: it lists the cases an attorney is of record on and its `file_date_*` filters bound WHEN A CASE WAS FILED. A case filed in 2023 has hearings today, so filtering that tool's file date to today returns cases OPENED today — almost always nothing. Never substitute it for this. PREFER THE BAR NUMBER whenever the user can supply it: it resolves to exactly one attorney, and a name may not — see `attributable` below for what that costs. READ `attributable` BEFORE ATTRIBUTING THE CALENDAR TO ANYONE. True means these hearings belong to exactly one attorney; false means they do not and must not be described as one person's day. On a BAR search it is always true and `attorney_name` is null — the hearing search returns no name, so that null means "not reported", not "ambiguous". A NAME SEARCH MAY NOT BE ATTRIBUTABLE. The hearing grid has no attorney column, so if a name matches several attorneys their hearings come back MERGED with no way to tell whose is whose. To catch this the tool cross-checks the name against the case index and reports `matched_attorneys`: - exactly one match -> `attorney_name` is set; treat the calendar as that person's - more than one -> the calendar spans them all and CANNOT be split. Say so and ask for a State Bar number. Do not present it as one lawyer's day. - none -> no cases exist under that name, so an empty calendar may mean the name is wrong rather than the day being clear. The cross-check is evidence, not proof — a single match still warrants preferring the bar number when the answer decides whether someone travels to a courthouse. SLOW ON A CACHE MISS — 30-120 seconds, because it drives a real browser through two CAPTCHAs. Tell the user you're pulling their calendar and let it run. This is the opposite of `search_cases_by_attorney`, which is fast and needs no warning. Repeat calls for the same search and range are served from a 6-hour cache and return instantly; `cached: true` with `fetched_at` tells you which you got. If the answer is being used to decide whether to appear somewhere, quote `fetched_at`. AN EMPTY CALENDAR IS A REAL ANSWER, BUT ONLY WHEN THE LOOKUP SUCCEEDED. If the call returns an `error`, the calendar could NOT be checked — say that, and never turn it into "you have nothing scheduled". Those differ by someone missing court. Covers all 100 counties at once; there is no county filter on this search. Public record. Read-only. NC only. Informational, not legal advice.

What was FILED — every case of a given type in a county over a date range. Answers "what IF cases were filed in Surry County yesterday?", "show me the estate cases opened in Wake this week", "how many civil suits were filed in Mecklenburg on Monday?". This is the DOCKET axis. The other searches are name axes — use `search_cases_by_party` / `_business` / `_attorney` when you know WHO, and this when you know WHAT and WHEN. EVERY ROW NOW CARRIES `case_status`, with no `enrich` needed — so do not call `lookup_court_case` merely to find out whether a case is open or closed. The returned text is FINER-GRAINED than the four filter values: alongside "Pending" and "Disposed" you will see "Disposed - Voluntary Dismissal", "Disposed - Dismissal on Order of the Court", "Disposed - Clerk of Superior Court" — i.e. HOW it ended, not just that it did. So never test it with equality against the filter vocabulary (`status == "Disposed"` misses most disposed rows); match on a prefix, and quote the portal's own wording when you report it. `date_start`/`date_end` are the **FILED** date, not a hearing date. A case filed in 2023 can have a hearing today — for "who is in court today", use `get_attorney_hearing_calendar`. Accepts YYYY-MM-DD, or the words "today" and "yesterday" (resolved in North Carolina (NC) time). **Defaults to YESTERDAY, not today**, when no date is given, and says so in `date_note`. Today's filings are still being keyed in by clerks, so a "today" answer is a partial set that reads like a complete one. **`case_type` is a case-number PREFIX, not a type code.** `CR` also returns `CRS`; `CV` also returns `CVD` and `CVM`. Read `case_type_breakdown` before reporting a count as "42 CR cases" — some of them may be CRS. Common types: `IF` infraction (traffic), `CR`/`CRS` criminal, `CV`/`CVD`/`CVM` civil, `E` estate, `SP` special proceeding, `M` civil misc. judgment (liens, lis pendens). **Completeness.** The portal caps a search at 200 cases; this splits the query by date and case-number prefix to get past that. If `truncated` is true the count is a **LOWER BOUND**, and `incomplete_prefixes` names the exact buckets that were not read — say what is missing rather than reporting the number as a total. The remedy is a shorter date range or a county. **An empty result is a real answer, but only when the lookup succeeded.** On an upstream failure this returns an `error`; never report that as "nothing was filed". `county_filter: "server"` means the county was applied by the portal itself before its cap, and every row is additionally checked against the county code embedded in its case number — so a county-filtered result here is exact, unlike the location-substring filter the name searches use. A date range is required (max 31 days) — an unbounded search cannot be completed. Read-only public record, North Carolina only. Informational, not legal advice.

Look up a North Carolina (NC) court case or traffic citation. Provide a case number (e.g. "26CV001234-012"), a citation number (e.g. "92403H2"), OR a `portalSessionRef` from a `search_cases_by_party` row. `caseNumber` is the STABLE, canonical identifier — prefer it for anything that isn't an immediate follow-up. `portalSessionRef` is a fast path that resolves an already-searched case without re-running the portal search. Its lifetime is UNSPECIFIED and not guaranteed — the value rotates on every search and should be treated as short-lived (it survives at least minutes; the upper bound is unmeasured); never persist or reuse it. (`caseHash` is accepted as a deprecated alias for `portalSessionRef`.) Returns case status, upcoming and recently-elapsed hearing dates/times/ locations, charges (including speed fields for traffic cases), and — for traffic charges — whether each charge is waivable or requires a court appearance under the NC AOC schedules, plus how to request a reduction or dismissal (online via NC Guide & File when the county participates, else in person via the District Attorney) in `citationOptions.howToRequest`. Those are OPTIONS WITH CONSEQUENCES, NOT A RECOMMENDATION: waiving is a guilty plea to the charge as written (an admission of responsibility on an infraction), while a reduction changes the charge before any plea, and both have to be completed BEFORE THE CASE IS CALLED — not merely on or before the court date. Present them as choices, not advice; `citationOptions.notice` carries this caveat verbatim. `citationOptions.state` IS THE RESOLUTION PATH AND OUTRANKS THE PER-CHARGE CLASSES. Two of its values turn on the clock, and both forbid "no appearance needed" no matter how many charges read `waivable`: "lastDay" (the hearing is TODAY — settleable with the clerk only before the case is called, no time to file online) and "noCourtDate" (no upcoming hearing, or today's has already been called — do not assert a failure to appear, since the person may have attended that morning). Relay `howToRequest` verbatim and it will be right for every state. Read-only: no email is sent and nothing is saved. North Carolina only. Informational, not legal advice. EVERY LOOKUP ENDS WITH TWO THINGS, PER CASE. Both are spelled out in `present_to_user`, the FIRST key of this result, already filled in for this particular case — read it and do what it says. (1) `caseSummaryUrl` — hand it to the user and call it the durable, shareable link to the full case record. It does not expire, it is publicly viewable, and the same case returns the same link every time, so it is the canonical way to cite or share the case. THE KEY IS ALWAYS PRESENT, so "when it appears" is not the test — the VALUE is: non-null means give it; null means minting failed on this lookup, so say nothing about a link rather than substituting `trackThisCase.url`, a portal URL, or a guess. (2) `alerts` — when `alerts.available` is true, ask whether they'd like email alerts when the case changes: a new court date, case information, case events, service events, or financial updates. ASK and wait for a yes. Never call `subscribe_to_case_updates` on your own initiative and never invent an email address. When `available` is false the case is closed, disposed, or not found — nothing would ever be sent — and you must not raise it. IN A MULTI-CASE TURN DO BOTH FOR EACH CASE, beside that case's own details. Two cases means two links and two offers; one combined link, or a single offer at the end of the answer, is wrong. (A search row's `portal_url` is ephemeral by contrast — don't present that as durable or persist it.) `upcomingHearings` lists only FUTURE hearings; `pastHearings` lists recently- elapsed ones (most recent first). The top-level `status` of "no_upcoming_hearings" means exactly that — NOT that the case has no hearing history. Before telling the user they have no court date, check `pastHearings`: an empty `upcomingHearings` with a non-empty `pastHearings` means a hearing has ALREADY occurred (they may have missed it) — a different answer than "nothing scheduled." Never infer "you didn't miss court" from an empty `upcomingHearings`/`status` alone. `service` answers "was the defendant actually reached?" on civil / SP / estate cases — the civil-side counterpart to `bailRisk`, and null on criminal/traffic, where service of process does not apply (null there = NOT APPLICABLE, not "not served"). Read `status` FIRST; three of its values mean the absence of a return is EXPECTED and must never be reported as "not served": - `served` / `unserved` / `mixed` — a return of service is docketed. `mixed` means both outcomes appear (several defendants, or the alias-and-pluries retry cycle). - `proven_other` — a certificate / affidavit / acceptance of service instead of a formal return. Still proof. - `appeared_service_moot` — the defendant answered or appeared, which waives a service defect. Service became unnecessary. - `not_required` — an appeal or petition; no summons is issued at all. - `pending` — a summons went out recently and nothing is back YET. Say "service is still outstanding", NOT "they weren't served". - `unknown` — a summons issued, nothing returned, and the case isn't new. `returns[]` is the full history (the retry cycle is often the story) and `latestReturn` the most recent attempt. `returns[].party` is NULL about a third of the time — the docket records the outcome without naming who it applied to — so never read a null party as "nobody". For the same reason there is deliberately NO per-defendant served flag: one case in the sample had a single docketed return against 41 defendants, and a per-party boolean would be confidently wrong. `legacyScan:true` means the paper file was scanned as ONE bundle rather than itemised, so proof of service may sit inside that PDF where no docket-text rule can see it — a missing return is weak evidence on those cases. `causesOfAction` is the civil counterpart to `cha… [12021 more characters not shown]

Cases where an attorney is counsel of record — by bar number OR by name. "What's on my docket?" for a lawyer or firm. Returns the case number, caption, filing date, case type and county for every case the register lists that attorney on. Each `case_number` goes straight into `lookup_court_case`. EVERY ROW NOW CARRIES `case_status`, with no `enrich` needed — so do not call `lookup_court_case` merely to find out whether a case is open or closed. The returned text is FINER-GRAINED than the four filter values: alongside "Pending" and "Disposed" you will see "Disposed - Voluntary Dismissal", "Disposed - Dismissal on Order of the Court", "Disposed - Clerk of Superior Court" — i.e. HOW it ended, not just that it did. So never test it with equality against the filter vocabulary (`status == "Disposed"` misses most disposed rows); match on a prefix, and quote the portal's own wording when you report it. FAST — about 3-15 seconds. This uses the portal's own attorney-search mode, not the slow WAF-and-CAPTCHA hearing scrape, so do NOT warn the user about a long wait here. PASS EITHER `bar` OR BOTH `last` AND `first` — a first name alone or a last name alone is rejected. Prefer the bar number when you have it: it resolves to exactly one attorney, whereas a name can match several. WHEN A NAME MATCHES MORE THAN ONE ATTORNEY, `attorney_name` comes back NULL and `matched_attorneys` lists everyone matched — the results are then a MERGED docket spanning all of them. Say so and offer to narrow by bar number; do not present it as one lawyer's caseload. When exactly one attorney matched, `attorney_name` is set, and it is worth echoing so the user can confirm it resolved to who they meant. `case_status="Pending"` is usually what someone means by "my cases" — without it you get their entire history, which for a working attorney is mostly closed matters and will hit the cap below. Old cases legitimately remain Pending, so a 2016 case in a Pending list is not necessarily an error. THE 200-CASE CAP IS REAL AND IT BITES HERE. `truncated: true` means matches are MISSING, not merely unshown — a busy defender or a large firm exceeds 200 routinely. `case_status` and `file_date_start`/`file_date_end` narrow SERVER-SIDE and genuinely recover cases; `county` does NOT — it filters after the cap, so a truncated county-filtered count is a lower bound, not a county total. Say the list is incomplete rather than presenting it as the attorney's full caseload. A DATE RANGE MAY NOT BE ENOUGH ON ITS OWN. Measured: bar 21262 restricted to cases filed in 2024 still returned 200 `truncated: true`, spanning only 20 Nov to 31 Dec. Narrow to a few months and check `truncated` again rather than assuming one year fixed it. Dates: ISO `YYYY-MM-DD` or `MM/DD/YYYY` — both accepted. `file_date_*` is WHEN THE CASE WAS FILED, not when a hearing is. For "what's on my calendar today", use `get_attorney_hearing_calendar` — filtering by file date answers a different question and will usually return nothing. "OF RECORD" IS NOT "CURRENTLY REPRESENTING". This is what the register records, so withdrawn, substituted and long-closed representations still appear. Do not describe the result as someone's active caseload. Public record — the portal offers this same search to anyone, so this is not a private view of a firm's book of business. Read-only. North Carolina (NC) only. Informational, not legal advice.

Cases with a COMPANY as a party — by business name. Use this, not `search_cases_by_party`, whenever the subject is an organization: an LLC, corporation, insurer, hospital, landlord, dealership or municipality. Party search requires a first AND last name, which a business does not have, so it cannot answer this at all. FAST — about 5-45 seconds. No CAPTCHA. Do not warn about a long wait. EVERY ROW NOW CARRIES `case_status`, with no `enrich` needed — so do not call `lookup_court_case` merely to find out whether a case is open or closed. The returned text is FINER-GRAINED than the four filter values: alongside "Pending" and "Disposed" you will see "Disposed - Voluntary Dismissal", "Disposed - Dismissal on Order of the Court", "Disposed - Clerk of Superior Court" — i.e. HOW it ended, not just that it did. So never test it with equality against the filter vocabulary (`status == "Disposed"` misses most disposed rows); match on a prefix, and quote the portal's own wording when you report it. TYPE THE NAME AS IT APPEARS, COMMA INCLUDED. The comma is significant and NARROWING: "FOOD LION, LLC" is a different, smaller search than "FOOD LION". Do not strip it, and do not replace it with a wildcard — advice to do that appears in the portal's help text but applies to a different search mode. WILDCARD: a trailing `*` is allowed and needs AT LEAST 4 characters before it. "WALM*" works; "WAL*" is rejected. Use it for a company whose exact registered name you do not know ("CAROLINA TOWING*"). THERE IS NO PARTY ROLE IN THIS RESULT, ON PURPOSE. The portal labels every row "Defendant" regardless of the truth — including cases the company FILED as plaintiff and criminal cases where it was the victim. NEVER say the business is the defendant. Read the side from `case_name` ("X VS Y" — the company's position in the caption is the real signal), or call `lookup_court_case` for the actual party list. THE 200-CASE CAP BITES IMMEDIATELY FOR ANY CHAIN OR INSURER. `results_truncated: true` means real matches are MISSING. Worse, `county` filters AFTER that cap, so a truncated county-filtered count is a LOWER BOUND, never a total — "11 cases in Wake" may be 11 of the 200 statewide the portal was willing to show. Only `case_status` and the file-date range narrow server-side. Say the list is incomplete instead of reporting a count as if it were complete. `matched_businesses` lists the distinct entity names actually hit. More than one means legally separate entities are mixed together ("FOOD LION, LLC" alongside "DELHAIZE AMERICA, LLC") — surface that rather than treating them as one company. Dates: ISO `YYYY-MM-DD` or `MM/DD/YYYY` — both accepted. These bound WHEN THE CASE WAS FILED, not when anything is scheduled. A year at a time is the most effective way to get a chain's cases under the 200-cap: 'FOOD LION' unfiltered caps out, but restricted to 2023 it returns 42 complete rows. Public record. Read-only. North Carolina (NC) only. Informational, not legal advice.

Search North Carolina (NC) court cases by a person's name. Returns (person, case) matches from the NC eCourts party-name search. Each row carries a `case_number` (the stable id) and a `portal_session_ref` — a Tyler token whose lifetime is UNSPECIFIED (it rotates every search; survives at least minutes; upper bound unmeasured). Pass it to `lookup_court_case` (as `portalSessionRef`) for a quick follow-up; for anything persisted or delayed use `case_number`. Never persist or reuse the ref. Each row also carries `portal_url` — the direct NC eCourts source record; it embeds the same short-lived token, so treat it like the ref (don't persist). `caseSummaryUrl` (from `lookup_court_case`) is the durable link. EVERY ROW NOW CARRIES `case_status`, with no `enrich` needed — so do not call `lookup_court_case` merely to find out whether a case is open or closed. The returned text is FINER-GRAINED than the four filter values: alongside "Pending" and "Disposed" you will see "Disposed - Voluntary Dismissal", "Disposed - Dismissal on Order of the Court", "Disposed - Clerk of Superior Court" — i.e. HOW it ended, not just that it did. So never test it with equality against the filter vocabulary (`status == "Disposed"` misses most disposed rows); match on a prefix, and quote the portal's own wording when you report it. Rows carry `party_type` (the person's role) plus `party_role_source`: "caption" = surname confirmed in the case caption (trust it); "portal_party_type" = role from the portal's own PartyTypeKey but no caption to confirm (common on SP / foreclosure cases — usable, but corroborate for high-stakes use); null = no role (or a role dropped as suspect, e.g. a citing officer mislabeled "Defendant" on someone else's caption). For an AUTHORITATIVE role/roster, call `lookup_court_case` and read its `parties` list. `party_role_verified` (bool) = source == "caption". Read-only. NC only. Informational, not legal advice. Required: `last`, `first`. Filters differ in where they apply: - SERVER-SIDE narrowing (reduce the portal search — the ONLY way to clear the 200-case cap): `case_status` ("Pending"|"Disposed"|"Closed"|"Reopened"), the filed-date range `file_date_start`/`file_date_end` (ISO YYYY-MM-DD or MM/DD/YYYY — both accepted), and a more specific name. - `soundex: true` is also server-side but BROADENS (phonetic surname matching → MORE matches, more likely to truncate) — don't enable it to clear a cap. - CLIENT-SIDE (filter the rows already returned; do NOT recover cases missed by the cap): `county` ("Wake" or "Wake County") and `case_type` (pick a value from the `narrowing.caseTypes` facet). Speed: a search runs a live portal query and takes ~15-50s, with real run-to-run variance — do NOT pick filters for speed. Narrow for COMPLETENESS: `case_status` and a `file_date` range are server-side and are the only filters that recover cases past the 200-cap; `county`/`case_type` only filter what was already returned. Two different limits: - `portal_truncated` true = the portal hit its statewide 200-case cap, so the set is INCOMPLETE (real matches are missing). See `portal_truncated_note`; when true, `narrowing` gives counties only (counts are lower bounds). Clear it with `case_status` / date range / a more specific name. - `results_truncated` true = the (complete) set exceeded `limit`, so not all rows are shown. Pass a higher `limit` (up to 200) to show them all. Breadth (read `narrowing_hint`): the tool never asks you to withhold results, and it distinguishes two cases with different remedies: - INCOMPLETE (`portal_truncated` true): the shown cases are valid but some are missing. Present them, and to recover the rest narrow with server-side filters (a filed-date range or `case_status`) — or, if autonomous with no user to ask, re-call `confirm_broad=true` to proceed as-is. - COMPLETE but long (a large set with `portal_truncated` false): nothing is missing. List or summarize the results; refining (county/case_type/date) is optional, not required. A moderate complete set is a fine answer on its own.

Search North Carolina (NC) money judgments and criminal sentences by party name. REQUIRES AT LEAST ONE OF `party`, `case_number`, `alias` OR `from_date`. The other arguments are FILTERS, not searches — `county` or `judgment_type` alone is rejected, and so is a call with no arguments at all. This is the JUDGMENT index, NOT the case index. A judgment is what a court ENTERED on a case — a money judgment against someone, or a criminal sentence. Use this for "does X have a judgment against them", "how much do they owe on it", "is it still active", "find liens/judgments before I lend or rent". For the case itself — charges, hearings, next court date, parties, service — use `search_cases_by_party` (by name) or `lookup_court_case` (by number). Every row carries `case_number`: that is the handoff key into `lookup_court_case` when the user wants the underlying case. IT CARRIES REAL PROPERTY LIENS, WHICH IS NOT OBVIOUS. NC files these as "Civil Misc. Judgment" records on the judgment docket, so this index — not the case search — is where they live. `cause_of_action` on each row says which kind, and the values seen in production include: CV - Claim of Lien (G.S. 44A claim of lien on real property) CV - Federal Tax Lien CV - NC Certificate of Tax Liability CV - Lien CV - Employment Security Comm Lien CV - Institutional Lien (Hospitals) CV - Lis Pendens (pending action against the property) CV - Transcript of Judgment (a judgment docketed from another county) CV - Summary Ejectment, CV - Money Owed, CV - Possession, CV - Collection on Account, CV - Other, FAM - Divorce, ... So "are there any liens against this person?" is answerable HERE, and answerable well: this index has no 200-cap, so a clean search really does mean none found. DO NOT FILTER TO "lien" TO ANSWER "ARE THERE ANY LIENS?" — that under-reports badly. A money judgment docketed with the clerk is ITSELF a lien on the debtor's real property in that county, whatever its cause of action says. So `CV - Money Owed`, `CV - Collection on Account` and `CV - Transcript of Judgment` rows are encumbrances too. Measured on one name: 4 rows whose cause contains "lien", and 35 further docketed money judgments the filter would silently drop — roughly a tenfold under-count. For a lien or title question, DO NOT filter; report the whole set and let the reader classify. `cause_of_action` is for isolating a RECORD TYPE — "show me only the lis pendens", "only the summary ejectments" — not for deciding what counts as a lien. ASK WHICH RECORD TYPES THEY WANT — do not guess. Run the search, read `narrowing["Cause of Action"]` (computed from the actual rows, BEFORE any filter, so it always shows the full menu), tell them what is there, and let them choose. `cause_of_action` MATCHES ON SUBSTRING AND FILTERS CLIENT-SIDE. `"lien"` catches every lien variant above; `"Claim of Lien"` catches only G.S. 44A. Because the index offers no server-side filter for it, the match runs over the rows already fetched — so when `results_total` exceeds what was fetched, `cause_of_action_note` will say the count is NOT a total. Read that note before reporting a number. NOT in this index, and not anywhere in this server: UCC financing statements (those are NC Secretary of State), Register of Deeds records, and lien-agent notices under G.S. 44A-11.1 (liensnc.com is not a court system). Say so plainly rather than implying a clean search covered them. ARGUMENT FORMATS (the requirement itself is stated at the top). `party` is a name in "LAST, FIRST" form (business names work as-is). `case_number` accepts dashed or undashed. `from_date`/`to_date` bound the date the judgment was ORDERED (not the case filing date, and not a hearing date) — ISO `YYYY-MM-DD` or `MM/DD/YYYY`, both accepted. A PARTY SEARCH DOES NOT COVER ALIASES, so this tool checks them for you. `party` and `alias` are separate indexes with no overlap — measured, a search for "WILLIAMS, PAMALA" as a party misses a judgment filed against "MCARDELL, PAMALA" that lists "WILLIAMS, PAMALA" as an alias. Whenever you pass a full `party` name, an alias sweep runs automatically alongside it and its hits come back in `alias_matches`, separate from `results`. READ `alias_sweep.status` BEFORE CALLING ANYONE CLEAR: "ran" -> aliases were checked. Zero matches is a real negative. "failed" -> they were NOT checked. Say so; do not report the search as clear. "skipped" -> not applicable, EXCEPT when the reason says the name was a surname only. Ask for a full "LAST, FIRST" name and re-run. AN ALIAS IS NOT NECESSARILY A FORMER NAME. It is any other name recorded for that party — a maiden or married name, a hyphenated or reordered variant ("LEWIS-WILLIAMS, FARRAH" vs "WILLIAMS, FARRAH LEWIS"), or a fuller spelling ("WILLIAMS, SHANE" vs "WILLIAMS, SHANE CHRISTOPHER"). Measured, 15% share the party's own surname. Do NOT describe an alias as a name that was "changed", and do not infer a marriage or divorce from one — the record does not say. An `alias_matches` row is filed against a party recorded under a DIFFERENT NAME, so it may be the same person or an unrelated namesake. Report those rows as leads to confirm — never state them as this person's judgments, and never merge them into a total owed. They carry no amounts. `alias` as an INPUT searches the alias index directly and takes the same "LAST, FIRST" form ("PAMALA WILLIAMS" returns nothing). Passing it explicitly turns the automatic sweep off, since it would repeat the same query. Row-level `debtor_aliases` / `creditor_aliases` list other names recorded for that party. They are populated essentially only on alias searches — empty on a party search is normal and means nothing. CIVIL vs CRIMINAL — read this before reporting a null. Each row has a `case_category` of CV, CR or FAM. `judgment_type` populates on civil rows; `sentence_type` populates on criminal rows… [2781 more characters not shown]