# /njclerk/documents/search

`POST /api/njclerk/documents/search`

Price: 10 credits

Search a New Jersey county clerk's recorded land records by party name and document type with a recording-date range, by book and page, or by instrument number; returns one row per document — the document type, recording date, book and page, instrument number, town and the grantor/borrower and grantee/lender party names. Pass the id to njclerk/documents for the full record, consideration and linked documents

## How to use it

The engine returns at most 1000 party-rows per query with no paging; total_matched_party_rows reports how many matched upstream, so narrow by doc_types, a date range or book/page when it exceeds the returned set. For mortgage-refinance leads search doc_types MTG,MORT; a document's lender is in reverse_parties and the borrower in direct_parties on a mortgage, while on a DEED direct_parties is the seller and reverse_parties the buyer. Join to njtax owner records on the deed book and page.

## Parameters

- `access-token` (string, required)

## Request body

- `timeout` (integer) — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
- `county` (string) — New Jersey county whose clerk records to search (default: "salem"; examples: "salem")
- `count` (integer, required) — Maximum number of documents to return (min: 1; max: 1000)
- `party` (string, nullable) — Party (person or company) name to match, in either role (examples: "BANK OF AMERICA")
- `doc_types` (string, nullable) — Comma-separated document-type codes to restrict to (examples: "MTG,MORT", "DEED", "MTGA", "MTGD")
- `book_type` (string, nullable) — Book-series code for a book/page lookup (examples: "O", "D")
- `book` (string, nullable) — Book number for a book/page lookup (examples: "1883")
- `page` (string, nullable) — Page number for a book/page lookup (examples: "221")
- `instrument_number` (string, nullable) — Recorder instrument / file number (examples: "2005098096")
- `date_from` (integer, nullable) — Keep only documents recorded on or after this date
- `date_to` (integer, nullable) — Keep only documents recorded on or before this date

## Response

### 200 — Successful Response

- `@type` (string) (default: "NjclerkDocumentRow")
- `id` (string, required)
- `doc_type` (string, nullable)
- `recording_date` (integer, nullable)
- `book` (string, nullable)
- `page` (string, nullable)
- `instrument_number` (string, nullable)
- `town` (string, nullable)
- `legal` (string, nullable)
- `direct_parties` (array) (default: [])
- `reverse_parties` (array) (default: [])
- `total_matched_party_rows` (integer, nullable)

## Errors

### 422 — Validation Error

The request body did not validate

What to do: Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.

- `detail` (array)
  - `loc` (array, required)
  - `msg` (string, required)
  - `type` (string, required)
  - `input` (any)
  - `ctx` (object)

### 408

The request ran past its time limit

What to do: Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.

### 412

The entity was not found, or a precondition failed

What to do: Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.

### 429

Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted

What to do: When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.

### 500

Something broke on our side

What to do: Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.

### 529

Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded

What to do: Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

## Response envelope

Success: Array of objects (may be empty if no results)

Error: Error may coexist with partial results if it occurs mid-execution. Check X-Error header and status code.

Every response carries these headers:

- `X-Error` — Error message text (present only on error)
- `X-Request-ID` — Unique request identifier
- `X-Execution-Time` — Execution time in seconds
- `X-Result-Count` — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
- `X-Total-Available-Results` — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
- `X-Warning` — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
- `X-Retry-After` — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.