Glossary

Last updated 15 September 2026

The words used on case pages, explained in general terms. A status says where a case stands right now — it is not a verdict. A name label says what the record reports, not what someone did. A document category is for sorting, not for summarising what the document says.

Presumption of innocence

A status, a role, or a charge describes what the public record currently says. It is not a finding of guilt. Everyone named here is presumed innocent unless a court has convicted them, and that conviction still stands.

A status is a snapshot of where a case stands now — not a history, and not a finding of guilt. The timeline on a case page keeps every earlier outcome, including ones a later court set aside.

People named on a case

These words appear on case pages and in search. Each one says what the record currently reports — and what it does not mean.

Suspect: Someone police or prosecutors have named in connection with an investigation. It does not mean they have been charged, and it is not a finding that they did it.
Person of interest: Someone investigators want to speak to. It is not an accusation and does not mean they are suspected of a crime.
Defendant: Someone a prosecutor has charged in a court proceeding. Being a defendant is not a finding of guilt.
Charged: A prosecutor has filed formal accusations in court. A charge is an allegation, not a verdict.
Alleged: Reported as claimed, not as established. An alleged fact has not been found by a court.

Case status

A case status is editorial shorthand for where the case stands today. It is not a legal finding — a case marked "Convicted" has a guilty verdict that currently stands, but the status can change if the verdict is overturned. The timeline keeps the full sequence, including outcomes a later court reversed.

Unsolved: No one has been convicted, and the case remains open with no settled account of who was responsible.
Arrest made: Someone has been arrested in connection with the case, which is not the same as being charged or convicted.
On trial: Proceedings against a defendant are under way and no verdict has been reached.
Convicted: A court has found someone guilty in this case, and that verdict currently stands.
Awaiting retrial: An earlier trial did not produce a standing verdict, and the case is listed to be tried again.
Conviction overturned: A higher court reversed the guilty verdict on appeal.
Acquitted: The court found the defendant not guilty of the charges tried.
Cold case: The investigation is unsolved and no longer actively progressing, though it can be reopened.
Mistrial: The trial ended without a verdict, so the charges were left undecided.
Charges dropped: The prosecution withdrew the charges before any verdict was reached.
Solved — no prosecution: Authorities have identified who they hold responsible but no one was prosecuted for it.
Closed: The case has been brought to an end without a conviction, so nothing further is expected in it.

Timeline entry kinds

Most entries on a case timeline say what they are — an arrest, a verdict, a sentencing. These few are court vocabulary rather than plain English.

Motion filed: A party has asked the trial court to do something — reopen, dismiss, suppress, or set aside a step already taken. The filing is the entry; whatever the court decides is recorded separately when it happens.
Plea: The defendant's formal answer to the charges — guilty, not guilty, or no contest — entered in court, sometimes under a negotiated agreement. A guilty or no-contest plea disposes of the charge without a trial, so it is not a verdict: no jury or judge sat as finder of fact. Any sentence that follows is a separate entry.

Date confidence

Every date on a timeline or in the court calendar carries one of three confidence levels. Confirmed means the source states this exact date. Scheduled means it is listed in the court diary but has not happened yet. Estimated means the date was inferred from a relative reference or a month-only source. A Confirmed date carries no badge; the other two normally do, though an editor can suppress the badge where it would just repeat the row.

Confirmed: The source we cite states this exact date, and the event has already happened. This means one source says so — it is not corroboration, and no second source has been checked against it.
Scheduled: The date comes from the court diary and is in the future. It has not happened yet, and court dates move — see the calendar's rescheduling notice.
Estimated: The source does not state an exact calendar day for this event, so the date shown is inferred — often from when it was reported, not necessarily when it happened.

Standpoint

A standpoint is a documented role the work's author held in the case, recorded only where the work or its publisher states it. It is not a judgement of accuracy, fairness or quality, and it is not applied to every coverage item — blank is the default.

Defence standpoint: The work's author states they acted for the defence in this case. It is a documented role, not a judgement of accuracy, fairness or quality.
Prosecution standpoint: The work's author states they acted for the prosecution in this case. It is a documented role, not a judgement of accuracy, fairness or quality.
Witness standpoint: The work's author states they were a witness in this case. It is a documented role, not a judgement of accuracy, fairness or quality.
Family standpoint: The work's author states they are a family member of someone in this case. It is a documented role, not a judgement of accuracy, fairness or quality.
Jury standpoint: The work's author states they sat on a jury in this case. It is a documented role, not a judgement of accuracy, fairness or quality.
Journalistic standpoint: The work's author is a journalist covering the case, as stated by the work or its publisher. It is a documented role, not a judgement of fairness or quality, and it is not applied to every news item — only where that role is on the record.

Court document types

Court documents are grouped into a small set of categories so they can be sorted and labelled consistently across countries. On a case page we always show the document's own wording — a Scottish opinion of the court stays an opinion, and English sentencing remarks stay sentencing remarks. The category is only used for grouping and for this page. We never summarise a document's contents.

Order: A court's direction that something must happen — a date set, a request granted or refused. Short, and binding on the parties.
Judgment: The court's formal determination of a case or an appeal, including the reasoning where the court publishes it.
Decision: A ruling on a question put to the court. Used where a jurisdiction calls its rulings decisions rather than judgments — a UK tribunal decision, for example.
Opinion: A written explanation of how a court reached its result. In some systems the opinion and the judgment are separate documents.
Motion: A request by one party asking the court to do something — exclude evidence, dismiss a charge, move a trial.
Response: A party's written answer to a motion or petition filed by the other side.
Letter: Correspondence placed on the record — often counsel writing to the court about scheduling or disclosure.
Memorandum: A longer written argument supporting a motion, or a court's own memorandum explaining a ruling.
Petition: A formal application starting a proceeding or asking a higher court to intervene, such as a petition for review.
Indictment: The charging document that formally accuses a defendant. Names differ by jurisdiction — indictment, information, bill of indictment.
Notice: A filing that records a step rather than asking for one — a notice of appeal, a notice of appearance.
Transcript: The verbatim record of what was said in court, produced by a court reporter or an official transcription service.
Sentencing remarks: The judge's spoken reasons for a sentence, published as a document. Standard practice in England and Wales; the equivalent elsewhere may be part of the judgment.
Other document: A document on the record that does not fit the categories above. Its own wording is shown as the source gives it.