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There are two almost identical case numbers assigned for the case United States v. Trump. The dockets are almost identical.

1:23-cr-00257-TSC USA v. TRUMP PACER CourtListener CourtListener case 1 1:23-cr-00257-TSC-1 - TRUMP, DONALD J. PACER CourtListener CourtListener Screenshot

What is the difference? Why do both exist?

uhoh
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Daniel McDonald
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2 Answers2

36

Court Listener explained by email:

This is unfortunately a bug we have in multi-defendant criminal cases. Sorry!

See a more technical description of the problem here: https://github.com/freelawproject/courtlistener/issues/2185

Jen
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    FYI, I think this is the only answer on [law.se] that references a github issue. There are other references to github, but they all seem to be about legal issues related to use of the site, or software licenses hosted on the site. – Barmar Aug 24 '23 at 15:05
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    Thanks for posting the answer here. I'm the director of Free Law Project (the nonprofit host of CourtListener and RECAP). Sorry about this bug. It drives us crazy, but it's really hard to fix without putting a developer on it for a few months. We'll get to it eventually, but until the former president was indicted it was uncommon for criminal case to have so many eyeballs on them! If anybody has other questions, we're always happy to hear 'em. I try to watch this site, but I missed this question. :) – mlissner Aug 24 '23 at 16:46
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    And yeah, we're different than other orgs because we're open source and transparent about our bugs. For example, if this is a bug that bothers you, you can subscribe on Github and follow along as we fix it. Alternatively, if there's a feature you want you can file a request or upvote on that already exists and maybe we'll do it someday! – mlissner Aug 24 '23 at 16:47
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    @mlissner Just another "unprecedented" thing coming from Trump. – Barmar Aug 24 '23 at 17:25
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The extra number is typically added to the end of a case number when there are multiple defendants.

Trump's case number ends with -1 because he is the first named defendant. I suspect you'd be able to find another docket number ending in -2 for whoever is the second named defendant, and so on.

bdb484
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