Courthouse News Service

What Courthouse News Service does

Courthouse News Service is a privately held legal news organization founded in 1992 and headquartered in Pasadena, California. It operates a multi-platform news operation covering federal, state, and international courts, with categorized sections spanning appeals, business, criminal, civil rights, technology, securities, personal injury, and roughly 30 other practice areas. Editorial output is distributed through a flagship website (courthousenews.com), native iOS and Android mobile applications, two newsletters delivered via Substack (the weekly Closing Arguments and the monthly Under the Lights), and the Sidebar Podcast, which is in its sixth season as of 2026. The company also maintains an international reporting presence with bylines from the Netherlands and Brazil.

The core commercial offering is CasePortal, a searchable database of judicial opinions and civil litigation reports that requires login access, supplemented by a free Civil Litigation Reports signup funnel. Distribution is primarily self-serve across all channels. The source material identifies three customer segments: legal professionals and law firms (primary), journalists and media professionals (primary), and the general public (secondary). No enterprise logos, named B2B customers, or institutional subscribers are disclosed. The technology stack is not disclosed, and no public API, third-party integrations, or AI/ML capabilities are referenced in the available material.

Monetization combines an apparent CasePortal subscription component with the broad free distribution model typical of digital legal news. The company operates without disclosed institutional backing — no venture capital, private equity, parent company, or public listing is indicated — and there are no records of recent mergers, acquisitions, leadership changes, restructuring, or regulatory actions. The business appears to be founder-operated or closely held, with the website actively publishing as of July 2026 indicating ongoing operations.

Name

Courthouse News Service

Legal name

Courthouse News Service

Website

https://courthousenews.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1992

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Courthouse News Service, founded 1992, is a privately held legal news organization covering U.S. and international courts. It distributes content via its website, mobile apps, two newsletters, and a podcast, serving legal professionals, journalists, and the public.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Legal News

NAICS

Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers (5131)

SIC

Newspapers: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2711)

akta.pro primary industry

Legal & Regulatory Publishing (Case Law, Statutes, Treatises) (MPAJACAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Data Journalism & News Intelligence Publishers (Indexes, Election/Market Data) (MPAJADAK), Legal Reference (Statutes, Case Law, Practice Guides) (EDAGAGAB)

Keywords

• Legal news reporting
• Court coverage service
• Litigation intelligence
• Judicial opinions database
• Legal journalism

Headquarters

HQ city

Pasadena

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Courthouse News Service is a nationwide legal news organization that covers U.S. federal, state, and international court cases, trials, appeals, and litigation through its main website (courthousenews.com), the CasePortal judicial opinion and litigation search tool, iOS and Android mobile applications, and email newsletters. The organization distributes categorized legal news across more than 30 topical sections and produces the Under the Lights (Sidebar) podcast covering entertainment and sports legal news. Its content and CasePortal search platform are targeted at attorneys, paralegals, legal researchers, journalists, and informed members of the public.

Product overview

Courthouse News Service is a legal news organization operating a unified digital platform centered on its main news website. The core product is the Courthouse News Service website providing categorized legal news coverage. Supporting products include CasePortal (a litigation and judicial opinion search tool), mobile applications for iOS and Android, two newsletter offerings (Closing Arguments for general legal news, Under the Lights for entertainment/sports law), and the Sidebar podcast series. The platform serves legal professionals, journalists, and the public seeking court and legal news.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CasePortal: Searchable database of judicial opinions and civil litigation reports

Products and services

• Courthouse News Service (Main Website) The flagship online news property of Courthouse News Service, providing free categorized coverage of court cases, litigation, criminal proceedings, civil rights, business, government, politics, technology, and other legal developments across federal, state, and international courts. Organized into more than 30 topical sections including Appeals, Business, Criminal, Trials, Politics, and Technology.
• CasePortal

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Law360: Law360 is a LexisNexis-owned legal news service that delivers daily specialized court, regulatory, and litigation coverage to law firms — directly competing with Courthouse News Service for the same legal-professional audience with a comparable subscription-based news model.
• Above the Law: Above the Law is a legal news and commentary site covering courts, Big Law, and the legal industry, competing for the same legal-professional and journalist readership Courthouse News Service targets, though with more opinion-driven content.
• The National Law Journal: The National Law Journal is a longstanding legal newspaper and digital publication covering U.S. courts, litigation, and the legal profession — a direct peer in editorial focus, with a longer print legacy and competing digital coverage.
• ABA Journal: ABA Journal is the American Bar Association's flagship legal news magazine covering courts, practice trends, and the profession — overlapping Courthouse News Service's news-of-the-courts mission while leveraging a large association-member distribution base.

Broad incumbents

• Bloomberg Law: Bloomberg Law bundles legal news with dockets, analytics, and citator tools for law firm and in-house legal departments; it overlaps Courthouse News Service's news product but operates as part of a much larger Bloomberg enterprise with significantly broader content and technology budgets.
• Reuters Legal: Reuters covers major U.S. and global court cases as part of its broader newsroom and offers Reuters Legal as a subscription feed — competing with Courthouse News Service on breaking legal news while leveraging significantly larger global reporting infrastructure.
• Law.com / ALM: ALM publishes The National Law Journal, Law.com, and other regional legal newspapers, covering courts and litigation — directly overlapping Courthouse News Service's editorial scope with a much larger portfolio and enterprise sales motion.
• Westlaw (Thomson Reuters): Westlaw is the dominant legal-research platform including case law, dockets, and legal news feeds; its news component competes with Courthouse News Service at the legal-professional end while bundling far deeper primary-source content.

Emerging players

• JD Supra: JD Supra distributes legal commentary, analysis, and news to legal professionals and in-house counsel, with overlap on litigation and regulatory coverage aimed at the same primary audience Courthouse News Service serves.

Others

• PACER / CourtListener (Free Law Project): CourtListener provides free access to federal court opinions and oral arguments via the Free Law Project, serving as a free primary-source complement — and partial substitute — for the judicial opinions content Courthouse News Service curates via CasePortal.

Market position

Strengths1 record

Weaknesses2 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/CourthouseNews
• Facebookfacebook.com/CourthouseNews
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/courthouse-news-service

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Courthouse News Service