How to Research Federal and Local Court Rules with Claude

A federal procedure question rarely ends with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The answer may also depend on a district's local rules, its electronic filing rules, a standing order, and the assigned judge's individual practices.

The free Federal Court Rules plugin from DocketDrafter gives Claude Cowork and Claude Code local access to the national federal rules and selected district local and ECF rules. Claude can search across 2,570 rules, retrieve exact provisions, compare overlapping requirements, quote the controlling language, and link back to the official source.

This makes it a serious primary-source research tool for federal procedure. Instead of asking Claude to answer from model memory or manually searching several long PDFs, you can give it direct access to structured rule text with precise citations, effective dates, and official links.

What the plugin includes

As of August 18, 2026, the Federal Court Rules corpus contains 2,570 rules across 28 rule sets, including:

• Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
• Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure
• Federal Rules of Evidence
• Supplemental Rules for Admiralty or Maritime Claims and Asset Forfeiture Actions
• Supplemental Rules for Social Security Actions under 42 U.S.C. § 405(g)
• selected federal district local rules from Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas
• selected ECF rules for the District of Arizona and Southern District of New York

That is enough coverage to handle substantial federal procedural research directly inside Claude, including questions that require comparing a national rule with a district's local requirements.

The collection is selected rather than universal. Each included rule set has its own effective-through date, all of which are documented in the current corpus coverage.

Install the Federal Court Rules plugin in Claude Cowork

The easiest installation method is shown in this video:

You can also watch the installation video on YouTube.

The steps are:

1. Open Customize in Claude Cowork.
2. Select Capabilities.
3. Under the network or domain allowlist settings, add public-corpora.docketdrafter.com. If all domains are already allowed, you can skip this step.
4. Return to Customize, open Plugins, and choose to add a marketplace from a repository.
5. Enter DocketDrafter/docketdrafter-plugins and sync the marketplace.
6. Find Federal Court Rules and install it.
7. Start a new conversation and ask a federal procedure question.

The first time Claude uses the plugin, it downloads and verifies the legal corpus. Later lookups use the installed local copy. An installed corpus does not automatically update itself, so check the coverage page and reinstall or refresh the plugin when a newer release matters.

No API key is required.

Install it in Claude Code

In Claude Code, enter:

/plugin marketplace add DocketDrafter/docketdrafter-plugins
/plugin install federal-court-rules@docketdrafter

You can also ask Claude Code to handle the setup:

Install the Federal Court Rules plugin from the DocketDrafter marketplace. Add DocketDrafter/docketdrafter-plugins as a plugin marketplace, install federal-court-rules@docketdrafter, and verify that the plugin is available. Explain any action that needs my approval.

After installation, start a new conversation so Claude loads the skill instructions.

Ask Claude to identify every layer of rules

A weak prompt asks only for the national rule:

What are the requirements for a motion in federal court?

A better prompt identifies the court and asks Claude to separate the sources:

I am preparing a motion in the Southern District of New York. Use the Federal Court Rules plugin to identify the relevant Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, joint SDNY and EDNY local rules, and SDNY ECF rules. Separate the requirements by source. Read each full rule, quote the language that controls, include the effective-through date, and link to the exact official source page. Finish with a short filing-specific checklist for any court or judge materials I should also review.

This gives Claude a more accurate research plan:

1. Check the national rule.
2. Check the district's local rules.
3. Check any included ECF rules.
4. Identify sources that remain outside the plugin.

Worked example: motion practice in SDNY

Suppose you need to determine the timing, supporting papers, and electronic filing requirements for a civil motion in the Southern District of New York.

Do not ask Claude to produce one blended answer without attribution. Ask for a source map:

Research the rules that may govern the timing, supporting papers, and electronic filing of a civil motion in SDNY. Use the bundled FRCP, joint SDNY and EDNY local rules, and SDNY ECF rules. For every requirement:

• identify the exact rule set and rule number;
• quote the controlling language;
• link to the official source and exact PDF page when available;
• state the bundled effective-through date;
• distinguish a national rule from a local or ECF requirement; and
• read the full text of each relevant rule before stating its requirements.

Finish with a short "Complete the Filing Check" section identifying relevant judge-specific or case-specific materials.

Claude can then search the corpus by concept, resolve citations such as FRCP 6, SDNY Local Civil Rule 7.1, or a specific SDNY ECF rule, and read the complete bundled text.

The output should not simply say "SDNY requires X." It should tell you whether X came from the FRCP, the joint local rules, or the ECF rules. That distinction makes the answer easier to verify and prevents a local practice from being mistaken for a national rule.

Look up a specific rule

If you already know the citation, be direct:

Use the Federal Court Rules plugin to retrieve FRCP 26. Quote the provisions relevant to initial disclosures, identify the bundled effective date, and link to the official source. Do not add case law or commentary unless I ask for it separately.

Other supported citation formats include:

• FRAP 4
• FRE 403
• Fed. R. Evid. 801
• Supplemental Rule G
• Social Security Rule 1
• SDNY Local Civil Rule 7.1
• SDNY ECF Rule 23.4
• D.N.J. L.Civ.R. 7.1
• E.D. Tex. CV L.R. 7
• W.D. Pa. LCvR 56

Bare rule numbers default to the main FRCP collection. Specify FRAP, FRE, the district, or the local rule set whenever a citation could be ambiguous.

Search by topic

You do not need to know the rule number. Ask Claude to search for a phrase or concept:

Search all included federal rule sets for rules addressing proportionality in discovery. Show me the matching rule citations first. Then read the most relevant full rules and explain which are national and which, if any, are district-specific.

Or narrow the court first:

Search the included SDNY and EDNY local rules for requirements involving affidavits, memoranda of law, and motion papers. Read the complete matching rules before summarizing them.

Search results are discovery aids, not authority. Claude should read the full rule before stating a deadline, exception, remedy, or filing requirement.

Use exact source links and effective dates

The plugin's reader returns rule metadata with the citation, title, rule set, source page range, effective-through date, and public source URL where available.

For rules built from official PDFs, Claude should link to the exact starting page rather than a general rules landing page. If the relevant rule spans several pages, the response should state the page range while linking to the first page.

A useful instruction is:

For each rule, use the official public URL supplied by the plugin. Do not replace it with a generic court homepage. State the effective-through date recorded for that specific rule set.

This makes it easier for the attorney to open the source and verify the quoted language.

Complete the research for your specific case

The plugin handles serious research across its included primary rules. For a filing-specific answer, complete the source map with the materials that vary by court, judge, or case:

• recent amendments on the live court website
• standing and general orders
• filing manuals, appendices, and required forms
• the assigned judge's individual practices
• scheduling orders and case-specific orders
• relevant statutes and case law

This is the same final diligence required after any federal rules research. The advantage here is that Claude can do the first cross-rule analysis quickly, from full primary text, with citations and source links you can inspect.

Get the free plugin

The Federal Court Rules plugin is part of the free, open-source DocketDrafter Legal Research Tools for Claude. It works independently from DocketDrafter's paid product.

Watch the installation video, review the coverage documentation, and email me at tommy@docketdrafter.com if you want help installing it or want us to consider another district.