Remove Court Records from RECAP Archive (2026 Guide)

What Is RECAP Archive and How It Relates to CourtListener

RECAP -- the name is a backronym for PACER spelled backwards -- was created in 2009 by the Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy and later transferred to the Free Law Project, a nonprofit dedicated to providing free public access to legal information. The project operates a browser extension that, when installed by attorneys or PACER users, automatically uploads any PACER document they retrieve to the RECAP Archive. Over time, this crowdsourced model has resulted in a substantial mirror of federal court documents covering millions of cases across every federal district and circuit court.

CourtListener.com is the Free Law Project's primary public search interface for RECAP Archive content. It is a full-featured legal research platform that allows anyone to search for federal cases by party name, case number, judge, attorney, or keyword -- for free, with no registration required. CourtListener indexes not just the docket entries (the list of filings) but the actual text of documents where available, which means that a party's name appearing in a complaint, motion, or order can be found and returned in search results. See our related guide on CourtListener court record removal for a deeper dive into CourtListener-specific strategies.

The practical relationship between RECAP and CourtListener is direct: RECAP is the document repository, CourtListener is the user-facing search engine that sits on top of it. When people and Google index content from CourtListener, they are accessing content that originally came from RECAP. This matters for removal strategy: the content exists at two levels -- in the RECAP Archive itself and in CourtListener's indexed search database. A successful removal request to the Free Law Project affects both levels. A Google de-indexing request targets only the CourtListener search URL that appears in Google results, leaving the underlying RECAP document intact.

RECAP's coverage is limited to federal court documents -- it does not include state court records. For federal cases, however, RECAP's coverage is increasingly comprehensive, particularly for district court filings from the mid-2010s onward. If you were involved in federal litigation in the last decade, there is a significant probability that documents from your case were uploaded to RECAP by one of the attorneys involved. Compare this to PACER itself, which remains the authoritative source but whose access friction limits casual searching.

How RECAP Documents Get Into Google Search

The mechanism by which RECAP content reaches Google is straightforward: CourtListener.com, the search interface for RECAP Archive, is indexed by Google like any other website. CourtListener has developed significant domain authority over its years of operation -- it is widely cited by legal academics, bar associations, law school clinics, legal journalists, and litigants, and it publishes structured, content-rich legal documents that Google treats as authoritative. This domain authority means that CourtListener pages for specific cases, dockets, and party names can rank prominently in Google for name searches.

For individuals named in federal litigation, the ranking dynamic works like this: Google indexes CourtListener's case and docket pages, which contain party names prominently in case captions, filing descriptions, and throughout the text of documents. When someone searches your name in Google, CourtListener pages containing that name may rank on page one -- not because the documents were specifically optimized to rank, but because CourtListener's overall domain authority causes even individual case pages to compete effectively with other results for specific person-name searches.

The recency of RECAP content also affects rankings. Newly uploaded documents from active cases can appear in Google search results within days. For cases that concluded years ago, the CourtListener pages often continue ranking because the underlying documents remain available and the pages continue to exist without updates or competing content. An old federal case can rank on page one for a person's name indefinitely -- a static digital record of a concluded matter that continues to be encountered by anyone researching that individual.

Can You Request Removal from RECAP Archive?

Yes, you can contact the Free Law Project with a removal request -- and they do evaluate these requests. The Free Law Project is not a commercial entity indifferent to individual privacy concerns; it is a nonprofit that takes its mission of providing public access to legal information seriously, but that also has adopted policies acknowledging that certain documents should not be publicly available. The question is not whether removal requests are considered but what requests are likely to succeed.

The clearest and most reliable path to removal is a court order. If the federal court where your case was filed has ordered specific documents sealed, or if you can obtain such a sealing order, the Free Law Project will comply and remove those documents from RECAP Archive and CourtListener. This is the most definitive outcome -- the documents are removed from the source and are no longer accessible through any Free Law Project platform. It also addresses the AI search problem comprehensively, which de-indexing alone does not.

For situations without a sealing order, the Free Law Project evaluates removal requests on their specific merits. The factors they have publicly stated carry weight include: whether the document contains sensitive personal information that courts typically protect (Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, medical information, home addresses); whether the case involved minor children whose identities should be protected; whether documents were filed in error and contain information that should not have been disclosed in the filing; and in some cases, whether the continued accessibility of the document serves any meaningful public interest relative to the privacy harm it causes. Standard public records from contested civil litigation between adults are evaluated against those same circumstances, so the grounds you can document are what move a request forward, and a free review identifies which ones your record has.

The Free Law Project's Removal Policy

The Free Law Project has published guidance on its privacy and removal policies, reflecting its effort to balance public access to court records with individual privacy interests. The organization's baseline position is that public court records should be publicly accessible -- this is the foundational principle that drives RECAP's mission. Departures from this baseline are made on documented justification. Understanding the specific criteria helps you frame a removal request effectively.

Sealed Records

If a court has ordered a document sealed, the Free Law Project will honor the sealing order and remove the document from RECAP Archive and CourtListener. A copy of the sealing order should be provided with the request. When RECAP obtained documents before a sealing order was entered, what matters is that the Free Law Project receives notice of the sealing order, so a formal notification with the order attached is the key step. In general, the Free Law Project has responded to sealing order notifications by removing the affected documents.

Documents Containing Sensitive Private Information

Courts have redaction requirements for certain categories of sensitive personal information -- Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, dates of birth, names of minor children, and home addresses of individuals in certain case types. If a document was uploaded to RECAP containing this information without proper redaction, a removal request based on the presence of inadequately redacted sensitive information has merit. The appropriate remedy might be redaction of the sensitive information rather than complete removal of the document, but either outcome limits the harm.

Documents Involving Minor Children

Cases involving children -- particularly in family law contexts, child protective proceedings, or juvenile matters that were inadvertently included in federal dockets -- receive additional consideration. The identities of minor children in court proceedings are protected in many contexts, and documents that reveal their names or identifying information may be removed when a specific privacy interest is identified.

Obtaining a Federal Court Sealing Order

For individuals for whom RECAP removal is a priority and whose records may not otherwise fit the Free Law Project's privacy criteria, obtaining a sealing order from the originating federal court is the most complete solution. A sealing motion starts from the federal courts' presumption in favor of public access to court records, so strong, well-documented grounds matter. The grounds that fit a sealing motion best are: the case is closed and the records contain sensitive personal information (such as trade secrets, medical records, or personal financial data) that has no continuing public interest value; the records involve sealed settlement terms or confidential business information that the parties agreed to protect; or the records identify victims of certain crimes whose identities are protected by law. An attorney experienced in federal court privacy motions is essential for this process.

RECAP Archive Court Record Removal - FAQ