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Trellis Law MCP Connector

The Trellis MCP server connects Claude directly to the Trellis legal research platform. You can run state trial court research — judge analytics, attorney lookups, case and statute searches, ruling pulls — from inside any Claude conversation, without leaving the chat to log in to Trellis.

This guide walks you through what the server does and how to use it.

What the Trellis MCP Can Do

The server connects Claude directly to Trellis's state trial court database of state court records, covering dockets, filings, rulings, verdicts, judges, attorneys, experts, and law firm data across 40+ states. From inside any Claude conversation, you can search and analyze that data using plain language, without logging into Trellis separately.

The range of what you can search is broad. A few examples:

  • Case and docket research Find cases by party name, case number, attorney, judge, or filing type. Pull full docket histories, filter by outcome, or surface cases matching a specific fact pattern or claim type.
  • Judge analytics Look up any judge by name and jurisdiction, then pull data on how they rule on specific motion types, how long their cases typically run, what their grant and denial rates look like, and how they compare to their county's baseline.
  • Motion research Find filings, briefs, and orders on a specific motion type across any jurisdiction. Research what arguments succeed on demurrer, summary judgment, arbitration motions, or any other procedural vehicle — grounded in actual trial court records.
  • Attorney and law firm research Look up opposing counsel by name or bar number, see their recent case history, and identify patterns in how they litigate. Research a firm's motion profile, practice area concentration, or case volume in a specific jurisdiction.
  • Expert witness research Search for expert witnesses by specialty and state, profile a known expert's appearance history and retained side, and find prior testimony, disclosures, or Daubert challenges in the document database.
  • Complaints and pleadings Find and analyze complaints filed in a specific practice area, jurisdiction, or against a specific defendant. Surface common causes of action, pleading patterns, and damages theories across comparable cases.
  • Rulings and orders Pull the full text of individual orders, tentative rulings, and judgments so Claude can read and analyze them directly. Search across thousands of orders by legal issue, outcome type, or judge.
  • Statutes and legal doctrine Find every trial court filing that references a particular code section or legal doctrine, and see how courts have actually applied it — not how treatises say they should.
  • Verdicts and outcomes Search recorded verdict data by case type, jurisdiction, practice area, or party. Surface damages amounts, award breakdowns, and outcome patterns to support settlement analysis or trial preparation.

This means you can ask Claude things like "How has Judge Schulman ruled on class certification motions in tort cases?" or "Find me California cases where plaintiffs recovered the 2x civil penalty under Civil Code § 1794" and get answers grounded in real Trellis data, not training-data approximations.

How to Set Up the Trellis MCP

  1. Open your Claude app (web, mobile, or desktop)
  2. Go to Connectors in your Settings
  3. Find Trellis and click Connect
  4. Sign in and authenticate with your Trellis account

How to Use the Trellis MCP

You don't need to memorize tool names or syntax. Just describe what you want in plain English and tell Claude to use Trellis. A few examples:

Example 1: Judge research

"Use Trellis. I'm appearing before Judge Ethan P. Schulman in San Francisco Superior Court on a class certification motion. What are his tendencies on class cert in tort cases? What's his typical timeline from filing to ruling?"

Claude will look up Judge Schulman, pull analytics scoped to class certification motions and tort matters, and summarize grant/deny patterns, median timing, and notable rulings.

Example 2: Attorney lookup

"Use Trellis to find attorney Anh Nguyen, California Bar No. 281925. What firm is she at, and what kinds of cases does she handle?"

Claude will search Trellis by name and bar number, return the firm and contact info, and surface a sample of representative cases with judges, filing dates, and dispositions.

Example 3: Statute and outcome research

"Use Trellis to find California trial court rulings where plaintiffs were awarded the full 2x civil penalty under Civil Code § 1794. I want to see the actual damages amounts and the multiplier the court applied."

Claude will search Trellis for rulings citing § 1794, filter to post-verdict orders with civil penalty awards, pull the full ruling text where needed, and report the damages and multipliers cited in each.

Example 4: Opposing counsel and case strategy

"Use Trellis. Opposing counsel just filed a demurrer in our LA Superior Court case. Pull their last 10 demurrers in similar consumer protection cases and tell me what arguments they typically lead with."

Claude will look up the attorney, find their recent demurrer filings in matching case types, and analyze the briefing patterns.

Tips for getting better results

  • Lead with "Use Trellis" when you want Claude to ground its answer in Trellis data. Claude will otherwise sometimes answer from general knowledge, especially for well-known judges or statutes.
  • Be specific about jurisdiction. "Judge Smith in LA Superior Court" beats "Judge Smith." Trial court data is jurisdiction-specific, and ambiguity can pull the wrong record.
  • Specify what you want at the end of the answer. Rulings? Just the analytics? A table comparing judges? Telling Claude what shape the output should take saves a round trip.
  • Ask for citations. Claude can return the underlying docket numbers and document IDs, which let you jump straight to the source on Trellis.

Learn more about Trellis Law MCP skills and technical documentation