Aapipick
Search API · UK Legal

UK Case Law & Legislation Search API

Query UK case law and primary legislation from one endpoint. Pre-shaped JSON for AI-driven legal research, compliance review, and statutory interpretation.

60 credits / call30 req / minPOST /api/search/uk-legal

Try UK Legal Search Live

Enter your API key and run a real query against the live endpoint.

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5 sample queries — click to load

API Integration Guide

Learn how to integrate this API into your applications with code examples and detailed documentation.

API Overview
Semantic search across UK case law and primary legislation. Returns judgment titles, statute sections, and source URLs ready for downstream LLMs.
POST
/api/search/uk-legal

Base URL

https://www.apipick.com

Full Endpoint

https://www.apipick.com/api/search/uk-legal
Parameters
Required and optional parameters for this API
query
required
string

Natural-language search query

max_num_results
optional
integer

1–5, default 5

relevance_threshold
optional
number

0.0–1.0 quality filter

country_code
optional
string

ISO country code (e.g. US, GB)

start_date
optional
string

ISO date YYYY-MM-DD

end_date
optional
string

ISO date YYYY-MM-DD

Code Examples
Copy and paste these examples to quickly integrate the API into your application

cURL Request

curl -X POST "https://www.apipick.com/api/search/uk-legal" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
  "query": "data protection breach damages",
  "max_num_results": 5,
  "country_code": "US",
  "start_date": "2026-01-01"
}'
Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your actual API key
Response Example
Example response from the API

JSON Response

{
  "query": "data protection breach damages",
  "results": [
    {
      "title": "Example result",
      "url": "https://example.com/article",
      "snippet": "Short excerpt of the page content…",
      "source_type": "web",
      "published_at": "2026-04-15",
      "score": 0.92
    }
  ],
  "result_count": 1,
  "credits_used": 60,
  "remaining_credits": 99
}
Integration Tips

✓Best Practices

  • • Always include x-api-key header
  • • Always handle errors gracefully
  • • Validate input data before sending
  • • Use HTTPS for secure communication
  • • Cache responses when appropriate

ℹResponse Headers

  • • Content-Type: application/json
  • • x-api-key: Required for authentication
  • • Status codes: 200 (success), 400 (error), 401 (unauthorized)
  • • No rate limiting applied

Rate Limits

⏱️

Request Rate

30req / min

Per API key, per endpoint. Sliding 60-second window.

🔀

Concurrency

3concurrent

Max simultaneous in-flight requests per API key.

Response Headers

X-RateLimit-LimitMaximum requests allowed per minute
X-RateLimit-RemainingRequests remaining in the current window
X-RateLimit-ResetSeconds until the current window resets
Retry-AfterSeconds to wait before retrying (only on 429)

429 Too Many Requests

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
Retry-After: 12
X-RateLimit-Limit: 30
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 0
X-RateLimit-Reset: 12

{
  "error": "rate_limit_exceeded",
  "message": "Rate limit exceeded: 30 requests/minute per API key. Retry after 12s.",
  "retry_after": 12
}

Frequently Asked Questions

Which sources are covered?

UK case law (judgments from English & Welsh courts) and UK legislation (Acts and Statutory Instruments). The Hansard / parliamentary debates source is excluded — that's on a higher tier we'll add later.

Is this legal advice?

No. Output is informational retrieval over public legal corpora. Always consult a qualified solicitor for actual legal advice.

Can I get the full judgment or statute text?

Results include passages plus source URLs. To pull the full document, use POST /api/extract on the URL — returns clean markdown ready for LLM ingestion.

Date range filtering?

Yes. start_date / end_date filter judgments by date and legislation by date in force.

Tool schema?

GET /api/search/uk-legal/tool-schema returns OpenAI function and Claude tool-use definitions.