Kohtulahendid ja istungid

Court Decisions and Hearings

Access

• Search UI: https://www.riigiteataja.ee/et/otsing/kohtulahendid
• API base: https://www.riigiteataja.ee/public-api/api/v1
• Public JSON POST endpoints; no login is required.

Retrieve

Post JSON to /kohtuteave/otsing/kohtulahendid for decisions. A minimal request is:

{
  "general": {
    "searchInText": false,
    "searchInTitle": false,
    "searchText": "",
    "searchText2": "",
    "logicalOperator": "AND",
    "morphSearch": false,
    "sort": "toiminguNr",
    "sortAscending": false
  },
  "precise": {"kohus": [], "seaduseSatted": {}}
}

Post the same general object to /kohtuteave/otsing/kohtuistungid with precise: {"kohus": []} for hearings. Useful precise decision fields include lahendiKpAlgus, lahendiKpLopp, kohtunik, ecliNr, menetluseTyyp, menetlusliigid, kohtumenetluseLiik, and kohus. Hearing fields include istungiAegAlgus, istungiAegLopp, istungiLiik, istungiSaal, kohtunik, menetluseLiik, and kohus.

Both responses contain kokku and up to 30 tulemused. Narrow the query with dates or court filters; do not treat the first response as a bulk export. A decision's public file is GET /kohtuteave/kohtulahendid/{avalikustatudFailiId}/file.

Return

• courtDecisions() rows are {case, date, court, proceeding, status, statusDate, fileName, fileUrl, annotations, objektId}; courtHearings() rows are {case, time, court, judge, kind, room, status, title}.
• Read a decision's own text with fileText(row.fileUrl). Riigikohus publishes HTML there, the lower courts PDF; fileText() sniffs either.
• Do not infer an outcome from a hearing listing or an annotation.

Limits

• Publicity restrictions and redactions apply; this is not access to complete case files.
• The result API returns 30 rows at a time and exposes no documented bulk pagination contract. Use focused searches. leht, page, offset, start, from and algus were each tried on 2026-08-01 and every one returned the same first page, so kokku (totals.total) is the ONLY count.
• Dates: the decision endpoint takes plain YYYY-MM-DD, the hearing endpoint requires a zoned timestamp (2026-08-03T00:00:00+03:00) and answers HTTP 400 to a bare date (re-checked 2026-08-02). The module handles both.

claim the hearing endpoint requires a zoned timestamp (`2026-08-03T00:00:00+03:00`) and answers HTTP 400 to a bare date
# Both halves of the sentence, in order: the decision endpoint takes the bare
# date, the hearing endpoint refuses it, and the control is that SAME hearing
# request with the SAME date in the zoned form — so a day when the hearings
# endpoint answered 400 to everything cannot read as this claim holding.
POST https://www.riigiteataja.ee/public-api/api/v1/kohtuteave/otsing/kohtulahendid
body-json {"general":{},"precise":{"lahendiKpAlgus":"2026-01-01"}}
expect-status 200
POST https://www.riigiteataja.ee/public-api/api/v1/kohtuteave/otsing/kohtuistungid
body-json {"general":{},"precise":{"istungiAegAlgus":"2026-08-03"}}
expect-status 400
# `general` is load-bearing even when empty: a body without that key answers
# HTTP 500 on both endpoints, and 500 is a status the kohus block below
# asserts — so a trimmed body would confirm a claim for the wrong reason
# (measured 2026-08-02).
control POST https://www.riigiteataja.ee/public-api/api/v1/kohtuteave/otsing/kohtuistungid
body-json {"general":{},"precise":{"istungiAegAlgus":"2026-08-03T00:00:00+03:00"}}

• The kohus filter takes unpublished classifier ids: passing a court's name answers 400 (decisions) or 500 (hearings) (re-checked 2026-08-02). Narrow by date or text and read each row's court.

claim passing a court's name answers 400 (decisions) or 500 (hearings)
POST https://www.riigiteataja.ee/public-api/api/v1/kohtuteave/otsing/kohtuistungid
body-json {"general":{},"precise":{"kohus":["Harju Maakohus"]}}
expect-status 500
POST https://www.riigiteataja.ee/public-api/api/v1/kohtuteave/otsing/kohtulahendid
body-json {"general":{},"precise":{"kohus":["Harju Maakohus"]}}
expect-status 400
# The control is that same decisions request with the court name REMOVED, which
# is what separates "the name is not a classifier id" from "the body is
# malformed": a malformed body answers 400 here too and would otherwise confirm
# the claim on its own.
control POST https://www.riigiteataja.ee/public-api/api/v1/kohtuteave/otsing/kohtulahendid
body-json {"general":{},"precise":{"kohus":[]}}

• Both endpoints are JSON-only POST: the same body sent as application/x-www-form-urlencoded answers HTTP 415, and a GET answers HTTP 405 (checked 2026-08-02).

claim the same body sent as `application/x-www-form-urlencoded` answers HTTP 415
# `general=x` is a stand-in body on purpose, and swapping in the real JSON one
# breaks this: the API replays a 200 it has already answered for that exact
# body, media type and all. A body it had just accepted as JSON came back 200
# under the form Content-Type; a body it had never seen came back 415 in the
# same second (measured 2026-08-02). Only a body no probe ever sends as JSON
# tests the media type rather than the cache.
POST https://www.riigiteataja.ee/public-api/api/v1/kohtuteave/otsing/kohtuistungid
body general=x
expect-status 415
expect /Unsupported Media Type/
GET https://www.riigiteataja.ee/public-api/api/v1/kohtuteave/otsing/kohtuistungid
expect-status 405
# The control is the documented GET on the same API: one published decision
# file. Without it, a day when the whole public-api refused everything would
# confirm both refusals above while the source was simply down.
control GET https://www.riigiteataja.ee/public-api/api/v1/kohtuteave/kohtulahendid/451798218/file

• Historical URLs ending in koik_menetlused.html and kohtuistungid_otsing.html now load the same JavaScript application; they are not data endpoints.

Verify

• Require HTTP 200 JSON with integer kokku and nonempty tulemused from both POST endpoints.
• Require decision rows to contain kohtuasjaNumber, objektId, and lahendiKuulutamiseAeg; require hearing rows to contain kohtuasjaNr, kohus, and istungiAeg.

Module API

courtDecisions({text, from, to, judge, ecli, inTitle}) -> {source, page, query, totals, rows, note} courtHearings({from, to, judge}) -> {source, page, query, totals, rows, note}