Research Tools: Free Law Project Relaunches “Big Cases Bot”
Updated Post: April 28, 2023 Tips for the Big Cases Bots
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From a Free Law Project Blog Post by Mark Lissner:
If you’re not familiar with it, the Big Cases Bot is a popular Twitter account that sends tweets whenever the most important cases in the country are updated.
The account was originally created by Brad Heath while he was working at USA Today, and it gained popularity and charm over the years thanks to the care he put into it.
Unfortunately, when Brad left USA Today, the folks there found it difficult to continue maintaining the bot. Court watchers on Twitter began to see the bot slowly fail in ways small and large, and it was clear a change was needed.
I’m pleased to announce today that USA Today has kindly given the bot to Free Law Project, and we are its new maintainers. We have completely rewritten the bot to use the CourtListener infrastructure, built a new website at bots.law, and have exciting plans for the bot’s future.
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The bot is signed up to follow 39 federal cases. We plan to slowly add more as important cases develop.
Learn More, Read the Complete Blog Post (Includes Info on Future Plans)
Resources
- Direct to Big Cases Bot (via Twitter)
- Direct to Big Cases Bot (via Mastodon)
- Direct to bots.law
See Also: More Resources From Free Law Project
Filed under: News

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.