Definition
An endorsement made by a grand jury on a bill of indictment signifying that the jury has reviewed the government's evidence and finds sufficient cause to put the accused on trial. When a grand jury returns a true bill, the indictment is formally approved and the criminal prosecution proceeds. The phrase itself is the finding — the grand jury foreperson writes or signs "true bill" on the back of the indictment, transforming the prosecutor's charging instrument into a live indictment.
A true bill does not mean the accused is guilty. It means only that the grand jury found probable cause to believe the accused committed the offense charged. The standard is substantially lower than the proof beyond a reasonable doubt required for conviction at trial.
---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A grand jury's document endorsing the indictment it was to decide on, indicating that a criminal trial is appropriate.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not separately defined; the term appears in legal context only.
The Wiktionary definition is accurate as far as it goes, but slightly imprecise on one point: a true bill is not itself a separate document — it is the endorsement on the back of the bill of indictment already presented to the grand jury. The distinction matters in historical research because the physical form of the instrument (the bill, endorsed with the finding) shapes how these records appear in court archives.
---
Common Confusion
TRUE BILL vs. NO BILL (IGNORAMUS): These are the two possible grand jury findings on a bill of indictment, and they are frequently encountered together in historical records. A true bill advances the prosecution; a no bill (historically endorsed "Ignoramus," meaning "we do not know" or "we take no notice of it") rejects the indictment and discharges the accused from that charge. Researchers encountering Latin-language records will see Billa vera (true bill) and Ignoramus as the operative terms. Do not confuse Ignoramus as a grand jury finding with its modern colloquial use meaning an uninformed person — the legal meaning is precisely the opposite of pejorative: it is a formal declaration that the evidence is insufficient.
TRUE BILL vs. PRESENTMENT: A presentment is a related but distinct instrument. A grand jury could initiate charges on its own knowledge through a presentment, without a bill of indictment being submitted by the prosecutor. Both could result in prosecution, but the procedural posture differs. Presentments largely fell out of use in American federal practice; true bills on indictments remain standard.
---
Why It Matters in Research
The shift from Latin to English practice is a critical navigational point. In records predating the transition away from Latin legal proceedings, the endorsement appears as Billa vera, not "true bill." Researchers working in colonial-era or early English common law sources must recognize both forms as equivalent.
Historical indictment records are often catalogued or abstracted by the finding. Docket books and court records may note only "T.B." (true bill) or "Ign." (Ignoramus) against a defendant's name. Knowing that T.B. means the case proceeded — and that the full indictment instrument should exist elsewhere in the file — prevents researchers from treating a docket abbreviation as the complete record.
The constitutional dimension matters for modern research: in federal practice, the Fifth Amendment requires indictment by grand jury for serious criminal offenses, making the true bill the constitutional threshold for federal prosecution. However, most states have moved away from mandatory grand jury indictment, replacing it with prosecutorial informations. This means that in state court research, especially post-20th century, the true bill and grand jury process may be absent entirely, or may appear only in serious felony cases.
The phrase also appears in ecclesiastical court records in the compound formulation "true, public, and notorious," a distinct usage found in libel proceedings in the ecclesiastical courts, where each charge in the libel was formally characterized with those three qualities. Black's and Rapalje both flag this usage. It is unrelated to grand jury practice and should not be conflated with the criminal law meaning when encountered in church court records.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries agree on the core definition: a true bill is the grand jury's endorsement on a bill of indictment finding the evidence sufficient to send the accused to trial. Black's and Burrill both cite 4 Blackstone's Commentaries 306 as authority, grounding the term firmly in the common law tradition Blackstone describes.
Bouvier adds the most procedurally useful detail, noting that when grand jury proceedings were conducted in Latin, the endorsement was Billa vera, and that Ignoramus remained the practice for rejected bills — pointing to the persistence of Latin forms even as English became dominant in court proceedings. Bouvier's note that the endorsement practice for no bills survived in Latin longer than other aspects of procedure is a useful caution for researchers dating documents by linguistic convention.
Rapalje cross-references indictment rather than providing an independent definition, which is characteristic of its structure but limits its utility here. The citation to 6 Car. & P. 354 points to Carrington and Payne's Nisi Prius Reports for further treatment of the effect of a true bill endorsement on indictment practice.
None of the historical dictionaries address the constitutional dimension — the Fifth Amendment grand jury requirement and its application to true bills in federal practice — which reflects their vintage. Modern researchers must supplement historical dictionary coverage with constitutional doctrine developed through 20th-century federal jurisprudence.
---
Jurisdictional Note
In federal court and in states retaining mandatory grand jury indictment for felonies, a true bill is the necessary precursor to prosecution for serious crimes. The majority of states permit prosecutors to proceed by information instead of indictment, meaning grand jury practice — and with it the formal return of a true bill — may not appear in state felony prosecutions at all. Researchers should confirm whether the jurisdiction and time period under study required grand jury indictment before expecting to find true bill records in a case file.
---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
No single Law Mind Encyclopedia entry directly covers grand jury indictment procedure. The entries listed in source matching (Fighting Words, GI Bill benefits, Incorporation) are not substantively related to this term. Cross-reference is omitted.
---