How to pull full case opinion for a list of cases?

[htmlaw]

Hello,

Currently, I'm trying to use a Python script to pull the case opinion for a specific list of cases. However, I'm running into a few issues.

Here is an overview of each step in the process:

(1) read local cases.txt file to get the case name and it's citation.

For example: Jackson v. California Newspapers Partnership 406 F. Supp. 2d 893 (2005)).

(2) use Search API to find the case and extract its opinion ID.

For example: https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/search/ type=o&case_name__icontains=Jackson+v.+California+Newspapers+Partnership&citation__icontains=406+F.+Supp.+2d+893+%282005%29

Ideally, the first result would be Jackson v. California Newspapers Partnership, which is the case here: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2323567/jackson-v-california-newspapers-partnership/?q=Jackson+v.+California+Newspapers+Partnership&type=o&order_by=score+desc&stat_Published=on

(3) use the Opinion API to find the case and extract its opinion based on the order of preference described here (i.e. start with html_with_citations).

For example: https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/opinions/2323567/

My main issue occurs in Step 2. If I use the broader search (case_name__icontains & citation__icontains), I rarely get the correct result and instead get a large amount of results. I rarely get any results when I use a narrower search (case_name_iexact & citation_iexact). I got the correct result for the above Jackson example when I used case_name & citation (https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/search/?type=o&case_name=Jackson+v.+California+Newspapers+Partnership&citation=406+F.+Supp.+2d+893+%282005%29), but the success rate is very inconsistent and usually fails.

How can I search for the correct case name? I'm running the program over these five test cases:

Jackson v. California Newspapers Partnership 406 F. Supp. 2d 893 (2005)
Jeub v. B/G Foods, Inc. 2 F.R.D. 238 (1942)
Jones v. Bock 549 U.S. 199 (2007)
Jones v. Morris Plan Bank of Portsmouth 191 S.E. 608 (1937)
JTH Tax, Inc. v. Frashier 624 F.3d 635 (4th Cir. 2010)

Thanks

[legaltextai]

since you have citations for each case name, did you try to run it by citation look up? "https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/citation-lookup/"
from my experience, the easiest would be to replicate the database, normalize citations to 406 F. Supp. 2d 893 -> 406fsupp2d893, index and then search by citation
see e.g. https://www.legaltext.ai/?q=406+F.+Supp.+2d+893&type=citation