INFORMATION - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

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INFORMATIONAuthored

The Law Mind • 1656 words

Definition

Information has two distinct legal meanings that operate in entirely separate contexts.

1. Criminal Procedure. A formal written accusation of a crime filed directly by a prosecutor or other authorized public officer, without the intervention of a grand jury. The information is the procedural alternative to a grand jury indictment: it charges a named person with a specific criminal offense, sets out the essential facts, and initiates the prosecution. It differs from an indictment only in its origin — an indictment is returned by a grand jury on its own authority, while an information is presented by the prosecuting officer on oath of office. Both documents serve the same foundational function: giving the accused formal notice of the charge and establishing the framework of the prosecution.

2. Knowledge and Intelligence (General and Evidentiary). Knowledge communicated or imparted, whether in the context of evidence, pleadings, or general legal usage. In evidence law and pleading, "information" may describe the knowledge upon which a belief is based — as in averments made "upon information and belief." In some civil practice traditions, particularly in equity, proceedings styled as "informations" were used to invoke the court's jurisdiction on behalf of the crown or the public in matters that did not fit standard private-party litigation.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Things that are or can be known about a given topic; communicable knowledge of something; the act of informing or imparting knowledge. Also, in a specifically legal sense: a statement of criminal activity brought before a judge or magistrate.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The act of informing or communicating knowledge or intelligence; news, advice, or knowledge communicated by others or obtained by personal study and investigation.
The common definition treats "information" as synonymous with knowledge, data, or notification — a concept with no particular legal weight. The primary legal meaning is a formal procedural instrument that initiates a criminal prosecution and carries constitutional significance. A researcher encountering "information" in a criminal law source should not read it as mere notice or knowledge; it is a charging document with specific formal requirements.

Common Confusion

INFORMATION VS. INDICTMENT
Both are charging instruments that formally accuse a person of a crime. The distinction is origin and constitutional threshold: an indictment is issued by a grand jury and is constitutionally required for federal felony prosecutions under the Fifth Amendment. An information is issued directly by the prosecutor. In jurisdictions and contexts where the grand jury requirement does not apply — many state courts, misdemeanor prosecutions, and most felony proceedings in states that have abolished or limited the grand jury — the information is the standard charging instrument. Confusing the two leads to significant error when reading historical records, since the presence or absence of a grand jury proceeding changes both the defendant's procedural rights and the constitutional stakes of the charge.

Core Elements

For a criminal information to be valid, it generally must:
1. Be filed by a competent public officer (typically a prosecutor or attorney general) acting on oath of office.
2. Identify the accused with sufficient particularity.
3. Describe the criminal offense with enough specificity to give the defendant notice of the charge and enable a defense — the constitutional floor established by the Sixth Amendment's right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation.
4. Be filed in the court with jurisdiction over the offense.

The constitutional dimension: Under the Fifth Amendment, federal prosecutions for infamous crimes must be initiated by grand jury indictment. An information therefore cannot be used to prosecute federal felonies. States are not bound by this requirement through incorporation, and many states permit felony prosecution by information, typically after a preliminary hearing at which probable cause is established.

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES
Criminal information: The standard form — a prosecutor's written accusation initiating a misdemeanor or, in many states, a felony prosecution.
Information in the nature of a quo warranto: A civil information historically used to challenge a person's right to hold public office or exercise a public franchise. This usage is largely historical but appears regularly in older equity and public law sources.
Information in Chancery / Exchequer: In English practice, civil proceedings brought in equity or revenue courts on behalf of the crown, styled as informations rather than bills or complaints. Rapalje & Lawrence notes these were categorized by whether they came before Chancery or the Court of Exchequer depending on the nature of the remedy sought.
Information upon information and belief: A pleading usage in which allegations are made not from personal knowledge but on the basis of communicated knowledge — a distinct and narrower sense appearing in civil pleadings and affidavit practice.

Why It Matters in Research

The dual meaning of "information" creates genuine navigational risk in the Law Mind corpus. A researcher moving across criminal law, evidence, civil procedure, and general legal reference will encounter the word used in at least three distinguishable ways: as a charging instrument, as a general reference to communicated knowledge, and as a term of equity practice for crown or public civil proceedings.

In criminal law sources — which represent the most common legal usage — the information is a constitutional and procedural pivot point. Historical sources from English practice will frequently describe the information as a tool of the crown's law officers, used both in criminal cases and in civil enforcement actions. American sources from the founding era forward concentrate almost entirely on the criminal information as the alternative to indictment. Researchers reading pre-Civil War American materials should note that the grand jury/information distinction was contested terrain, and many state constitutions addressed it explicitly.

The Fifth Amendment limitation on federal criminal informations is a firm rule that shapes all federal criminal procedure: searching federal materials for "information" as a charging instrument will yield results almost exclusively in the misdemeanor and petty offense context. State practice varies substantially — some states have largely supplanted the grand jury with the information-plus-preliminary-hearing model, while others retain robust grand jury requirements.

Anderson's Dictionary of Law's sparse entry ("knowledge imparted or obtained") captures only the general usage, not the procedural instrument. Researchers relying solely on Anderson's for this term will miss the central legal meaning entirely.

For tax and regulatory research, note that "information" appears in compound terms — information return, information statement — that carry specific statutory meanings entirely separate from both the criminal and general definitions. These statutory uses are governed by their own definitional regimes and should be distinguished from the common-law procedural instrument.

Historical Dictionary Support

The shelf sources are largely in agreement on the core criminal procedure definition but differ significantly in scope and completeness.

Bouvier's provides the most thorough treatment, offering both the American practice definition and the French law usage. Bouvier notes the critical structural distinction: an information "differs only in being presented by a competent public officer on his oath of office" rather than by a grand jury. Bouvier also situates the information within the Fifth Amendment's infamous-crimes requirement, quoting the construction that infamy attaches based on the punishment the court has power to inflict, not the punishment ultimately imposed — a point of direct relevance to the grand jury/information threshold question.

Burrill's describes the information as "a process or proceeding in behalf of the crown, or (in American law) the people, used both as a criminal prosecution and a civil remedy." This formulation helpfully preserves the dual criminal/civil usage visible in English equity practice, which Burrill attributes to the attorney-general's authority. American editions and American-focused entries progressively narrowed this toward the purely criminal meaning.

Rapalje & Lawrence explicitly characterizes an information as "in the nature of a pleading" and notes that it initiates both civil and criminal proceedings — the most expansive framing of the sources surveyed. Rapalje & Lawrence also references former English Chancery and Exchequer practice, which other American dictionaries largely omit.

Black's (citing 4 Blackstone's Commentaries 308) keeps the definition tightly procedural and criminal: an accusation exhibited against a person for a criminal offense, without an indictment, presented by a competent public officer on oath. The Blackstone citation is the common thread across multiple sources; Blackstone's original treatment in the Commentaries was the authoritative English statement of the doctrine and was imported wholesale into American legal dictionaries through the nineteenth century.

Anderson's is the outlier, defining information as merely "knowledge imparted or obtained" and redirecting to related terms. This definition addresses only the general evidentiary and epistemic usage, not the procedural instrument. Researchers using Anderson's as a primary reference for this term should consult Bouvier's or Burrill's for the charging-instrument meaning.

No shelf source adequately addresses the modern statutory concept of an "information return" or the data-privacy sense of "information" that has become prominent in regulatory and employment law. These meanings post-date the historical dictionaries and require modern statutory and regulatory sources.

Jurisdictional Note

Federal criminal practice requires grand jury indictment for all infamous crimes under the Fifth Amendment; information is available only for misdemeanors and petty offenses at the federal level. State practice varies widely: many states permit felony prosecution by information following a probable cause hearing, and some states have largely displaced the grand jury in ordinary felony practice. Researchers should not assume that the federal constitutional limitation on informations applies in the state court materials they are reading.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Sixth Amendment — Right to Be Informed of Charges (The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia)
Information Return Penalties (The Law Mind Tax Encyclopedia)
Biometric Information Privacy Laws (The Law Mind Employment & Labor Law Encyclopedia)

INFORMATIONmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

accusation exhibited against a person for some criminal offense, without an indict- ment. 4 Bl. Comm. 308. An accusation in the nature of an indict- ment, from which it differs only in being pre- sented by a competent public officer on his

INFORMATIONmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888

(652) who is born alive and respires, is tested by - An information is in the nature of a pleading. It is the step by which several civil and criminal proceedings are commenced. See, also, infra 18. 1. Former English practice-Civil cases-Chancery. - Civil proceedings by information were formerly brought in England either in Chancery or in the Court of Exchequer, according to the nature of the remedy sought. When a suit in Chancery was instituted on behalf of the crown, or of persons partaking of its prerogative or under its particular protection (e. g. a charity), the matter of complaint was offered to the court by a document called an "information," which was a statement of facts by the attorney-general or other proper officer (the informant) resembling a bill of complaint (q. v.), except that it was not in the form of a petition. 2. Relator.-If the suit did not immediately concern the rights of the crown, its officers depended on the relation of some person whose name was inserted in the information, and who was termed the "relator" (q. v.) 23. Information and bill.-It sometimes happened that this person had an interest in the matter in dispute, of the injury to which interest he had a right to complain. In this case, his (653) personal complaint was incorporated with the information given to the court by the officer of the crown; under the old practice they formed together an information and bill, and were so termed. Mitf. Pl. 22, 99; Dan. Ch. Pr. 8. 4. Ex officio. - When an information was filed by the attorney-general upon his own authority, it was sometimes called an information "ex officio," as opposed to an information at the relation of a private individual. Attorney-General v. Cockermouth Local Board, L. R. 18 Eq. 176. 332; Man. Exch. Pr. 142; Crown Suits Act, 1865, § 31 et seq. 11. Devenerunt.-An information of devenerunt lay to recover goods belonging to the crown which "have come into the hands" of a subject. It was in the nature of an action of detinue, and was either wholly or partly in rem.. (Man. Exch. Pr. 165. For an instance of an information and protest in an Admiralty action, see The Parlement Belge, 4 P. D. p. 130.) Under the new practice it would seem that informations of the kinds mentioned above (¿ 6 et seq.) should be assigned to the Queen's Bench Division. See HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE. 12. English criminal practice.-For penalties, &c. -Criminal informations are 25. Present English practice. At the present day proceedings by information in the Chancery Division assume the form of an action by the attorney-general, either ex officio or at the relation of some person or corporation. Rules of three kinds: Those brought partly at the of Court, i. 1; Attorney-General v. Shrewsbury suit of the crown and partly at that of a subject, Bridge Co., W. N. (1880) 23; Attorney-General to enforce a penalty or forfeiture under a penal v. Gas Light and Coke Co., 7 Ch. D. 217; Attorney-General v. Mayor of Brecon, 10 Id. 207; Attorney-General v. Great Eastern Rail. Co., 11 Id. 449. 6. English information. There was also a proceeding called an "English information" in the Exchequer Division, under the equitable jurisdiction of the Court of Exchequer, so called because it was in the nature of a bill of complaint in equity, which was formerly called an English bill. Crown Suits Act, 1865, 6 et seq.; see BILL OF COMPLAINT, 7; At torney-General v. Halling, 15 Mees. & W. 687; Corporation of London v. Attorney-General, 1 H. L. Cas. 440. 7. Exchequer. -The prerogative process of information was in the nature of a civil action at the suit of the crown, and was instituted for the purpose of obtaining satisfaction in damages for some injury to crown possessions, or to recover money due to or goods claimed by the crown. The information was not founded on any writ, but merely on the intimation of the attorney-general, who "gave the court to understand and be informed of" the matter in question. The party was then put to answer by plea, which the crown might traverse or demur to, &c., and trial was had as in suits between subject and subject. Informations were of three principal kinds: 28. Intrusion.--An information of intrusion was in the nature of an action of trespass quare clausum fregit, and was brought for any trespass committed on the lands of the crown. A similar information lies at the instance of the prosecuting officer of the State, in Massachusetts and Virginia. 9. Debt (in personam). An information of debt (or information in personam) was brought upon any contract for moneys due to the crown, (though process by extent was more usual in such cases,) or for any forfeiture due to the crown upon the breach of a penal statute, especially when the revenue was concerned. 10. In rem. An information in rem, or real information, lay where any goods were supposed to become the property of the crown as derelict, and no man appeared to claim them, or where goods were forfeited for non-payment of excise duties, &c. 3 Bl. Com. 261; Chit. Prerog. statute. These are a sort of qui tam actions, only carried on by a criminal instead of a civil process. 4 Bl. Com. 308; Stat. 31 Eliz. c. 5. See ACTION, & 9. 13. Queen's Bench-Ex officio.- Informations brought in the Queen's Bench Division in the name of the crown alone. These are of two kinds. Informations by the crown, filed ex officio by the attorney-general, are employed in the case of crimes which peculiarly tend to disturb or endanger the government, or to molest or affront the queen in the regular discharge of her royal functions. 14. Ex relatione. Informations filed by the master of the crown office upon the complaint or relation of a private subject, are applicable for the punishment of any gross and notorious misdemeanors, such as riots, batteries, libels, bribery, misconduct by magistrates, &c. The defendant pleads or demurs to the information, and the trial and subsequent proceedings resemble those on an ordinary prosecution by indictment in the Queen's Bench Division, except that the preliminary inquiry by a grand jury is absent. 4 Bl. Com. 308; Grady & Scotland's Crown Side Pr. passim; Archb. Cr. Pl. 112 et seq. See PLEADING; QUEEN'S BENCH; QUO WARRANTO; TRIAL. 15. Justices of the pe

INFORMATIONmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

Knowledge imparted or obtained. See BELIEF; COMMUNI-

INFORMATIONn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

The act of informing, or communicating knowledge or intelligence. The active informations of the intellect. South. News, advice, or knowledge, communicated by others or obtained by personal study and investigation; intelligence; knowledge derived from reading, observation, or instruction. Larger opportunities of information. Rogers. He should get some information in the subject he intends to handle. Swift. A proceeding in the nature of a prosecution for some offens against the government, instituted and prosecuted, really or nominally, by some authorized public officer on behalt of the government. It differs from an indictment in criminal cases chiefly in not being based on the finding of a grand juri. See Indictment.

informationnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

Something that provides a definitive characterization or description of the nature and attributes of a specified entity. | Things that are or can be known about a given topic; communicable knowledge of something. | The act of informing or imparting knowledge; notification. | A statement of criminal activity brought before a judge or magistrate; in the UK, used to inform a magistrate of an offence and request a warrant; in the US, an accusation brought before a judge without a grand jury indictment. | The act of informing against someone, passing on incriminating knowledge; accusation. | The systematic imparting of knowledge; education, training. | The creation of form; the imparting of a given quality or characteristic; forming, animation. | The meaning that a human assigns to data by means of the known conventions used in its representation. | Divine inspiration. | A service provided by telephone which provides listed telephone numbers of a subscriber. | Any unambiguous abstract data, the smallest possible unit being the bit. | The output resulting from the systematic collection, manipulation and organization of raw data into a structured, interpretable format. | Any ordered sequence of symbols (or signals) (that could contain a message).

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