Outcome

relief_natures

(array[string])

What kind of relief was awarded in the case. (If a type of relief was sought but denied, it is not included here.)

Value	Description
Attorneys fees	Money awarded to compensate the attorneys on the other side.
Declaratory Judgment	A judgment that states the court's authoritative opinion. Unlike an injunction (below), a declaratory judgment does not require a party to take action or pay money.
Injunction/Injunctive-like Settlement	An injunction is a court order that requires a party to stop or start doing something. An injunctive-like settlement is for when the case settles before an injunction can be issued, but the terms of the settlement require a party to stop or start doing something (likely what the plaintiffs sought an injunction for in the first place).
Criminal Conviction	In a criminal case, a final judgment on a verdict of guilty, a plea of guilty, or a plea of nolo contendere (where a criminal defendant does not accept or deny responsibility for the charges but agrees to accept punishment).
Damages	Money awarded in the case. This can include compensatory damages (to compensate the victim) and punitive damages (to punish the offending party).
Document/information produced	Where the defendant(s) provided the requested documents or information. This is common with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) cases.
Habeas relief	An individual successfully challenged their criminal conviction and imprisonment in a civil suit. Habeas is generally considered an individual's last resort attempt to overturn their sentence.
Preliminary injunction/Temp. restraining order	An order issued before the final judgment of the case that requires a party to stop or start doing something.
Warrant/Order allowing surveillance	In cases before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court), a warrant or order for electronic surveillance of someone suspected of spying with or for a foreign government.
None	No relief was awarded in the case.
None yet	There could still be relief awarded in the case, but the case is ongoing.
Unknown	We do not know what relief was awarded in the case.

If this field is an empty array, then the case's metadata is likely not complete – see case_status.

relief_nature_other

(string)

Types of relief awarded that are not in the Clearinghouse's predefined list. It is rare for a case to have something for this field; in most cases, relief_nature_other will be an empty string.

relief_sources

(array[string])

The source of the relief awarded in the case. The values "None", "None yet", and "Unknown" correspond to the same options under relief_natures.

Value	Description
Litigation	The relief was ordered through a court order.
Settlement	The relief was a result of a settlement agreement.
None	No relief was awarded in the case.
None yet	There could still be relief awarded in the case, but the case is ongoing.
Unknown	We do not know what relief was awarded in the case.

If this field is an empty array, then the case's metadata is likely not complete – see case_status.

settlement_agreement

(array[string])

The form of the settlement agreement, if there is one in the case.

Value	Description
Conditional Dismissal	When the plaintiff agrees to dismiss the case if and only if the defendant complies with some settlement terms. If the defendant fails to live up to those terms, the result is the reinstitution of the case.
Confession of Judgment	When the defendant agrees to liability. This is very unusual.
Court Approved Settlement or Consent Decree	If the parties agree to a settlement, and the court issues an order approving it. This is very common.
Private Settlement Agreement	If the parties agree to a settlement that is not approved by the court. The settlement terms are often private.
Voluntary Dismissal	When the plaintiff movees to dismiss the case, and the court grants the motion. This is often done by agreement when the parties settle for monetary damages but no injunction.

If there is no settlement agreement in the case, then this field will be an empty array.

prevailing_party

(string)

Which party "won" the case. This doesn't necessarily have to be by a formal judgment; we also look at what relief has been awarded, whether through court orders or settlements, to determine which party prevailed.

Value	Description
Plaintiff	The plaintiff(s) obtained any sort of relief, even if minor.
Defendant	The defendant(s) prevailed.
Mixed	Both sides received some of what they were hoping for.
None Yet/None	Neither side prevailed or there is no outcome yet.
Unknown	We don't know which side prevailed.

If there has been a district court judgment but the case is pending appeal, prevailing_party reflects who won in district court.

If this field is an empty array, then the case's metadata is likely not complete – see case_status.

defendant_payment

(string)

How much the defendants paid as a result of the lawsuit. This is the combined amount for all damages, attorneys' fees, and any other costs. For cases where many payments happen over the course of some period of time (especially attorneys' fees), this value may not include all of the payments.

The format of this string varies, but here are some examples of how this string might be formatted:

• 5000

• 5000.00

• 5,000

• 5,000.00

• $5,000

• $5,000.00

In addition, sometimes this string contains text when we do not have an exact number. For example:

• redacted from court transcript

• roughly $1,000,000

• up to $1 billion

If this string is empty, there are a few possible reasons: we do not know how much the defendants paid, the defendants did not pay anything, or the case is still going. Also the case's metadata may not be complete – see case_status.