Contents:
Court Terms
- Term used in some Indiana Clerks' offices to refer to parties that are not initially listed as a party. In most cases, the Added or Redefined Party has a financial interest that arose in the course of hearing the case and they have been added to the case to aid in keeping financial records accurately. For instance, the person may have posted bail for a defendant or been awarded restitution.
- See Chronological Case Summary.
- See Case Management System.
- Any of many software programs used to store and manage court records, and in some cases document images, electronically. These programs may be purchased from commercial vendors, as most are, or developed by information services personnel within local government. Information on a CMS may include court schedules, case/cause numbers, party information, chronological case summary (docket sheet), minute entries on events, judgments, and financial information.
- See Cause ID or Cause Number.
- The two forms of case status officially recognized by Indiana
Courts are "Pending" and "Decided". Decided refers to cases in which "no further proceedings remain to be conducted
as evidenced by the final judgment or other order of the court." (Trial Rule 77(G)(1). Pending refers to all cases
which are not decided. Because different terms are used throughout the country and even within Indiana, Doxpop uses
the general term of "Open" to refer to a case which is Pending, Redocketed or Undecided and "Closed" to refer to
Decided or Disposed Cases. See also Disposed, Redocketed.
- The classification of a case into one of several types. For Indiana cases, this classification is indicated in the standard format of the cause ID or cause number. The current list of Indiana case types and their abbreviations follows:
- AD - Adoption
- CB - Court Business Record - i.e. court orders that refer to non-case matters such as the appointment
- CC - Civil Collection
- CF- Criminal Felony (New CF case numbers shall not be issued after 12/31/2001. CF cases filed prior to 1/1/2002 shall continue to bear the CF case type designation.)
- CM - Criminal Misdemeanor
- CT - Civil Tort
- CP - Civil Plenary (New CP case numbers shall not be issued after 12/31/2001. CP cases filed before 1/1/2002 shall continue to bear the CP case type.)
- DF - Class D Felony, frequently entered as FD
- DR - Domestic Relation (includes Dissolution of Marriage, Annulment, and Legal Separation)
- ES - Estate, Supervised
- EU - Estate, Unsupervised
- FA - Class A Felony
- FB - Class B Felony
- FC - Class C Felony
- FD - Class D Felony, also can be entered as DF
- GU - Guardianship
- IF - Infraction
- JC - Juvenile CHINS (Child in Need of Services)
- JD - Juvenile Delinquency
- JM - Juvenile Miscellaneous
- JP - Juvenile Paternity
- JS - Juvenile Status
- JT - Juvenile Termination of Parental Rights
- MC - Miscellaneous Criminal
- MF - Mortgage Foreclosure
- MH - Mental Health
- MI - Miscellaneous (Civil cases other than those specifically identified - i.e. change of name, appointment of appraisers, marriage waivers, etc.)
- MR - Murder
- OV - Local Ordinance Violation
- OE - Exempted Ordinance Violation
- PC - Post Conviction Relief Petition
- PL - Civil Plenary (Civil Plenary cases filed after 1/1/2002- All Civil cases except those otherwise specifically designated.)
- PO - Protective Order
- RS - Reciprocal Support
- SC - Small Claims
- TR - Trust
See case numbering amendments from 2001 at http://www.in.gov/judiciary/orders/rule-amendments/2001/admin.pdf and from 2004 at http://www.in.gov/judiciary/orders/rule-amendments/2004/0904-admin.pdf
- The combination of letters and numbers used to identify a case. In Indiana, the "Cause Number" is made up of several parts that encode information about the case. The format is as follows:
[County Number]-[Court ID]-[Year][Month]-[Type]-[Annual Sequence Number]
For instance: 53-C01-0201-IF-00012 refers to the 12th (00012) Infraction (IF)
to be filed in 2002. The case was filed in January of 2002 (0201) in the First
Circuit Court (C01) of Monroe County (53).
- A Chronological Case Summary (abbreviated CCS) is a standard sequential record-keeping format for case information in Indiana. It mainly contains a sequence of minute entries that summarize important events. The contents of a CCS are standardized in Indiana Trial Rule 77(B) as follows:
(B) Chronological case summary. For each case, the clerk of the circuit court shall
maintain a sequential record of the judicial events in such proceeding. The record
shall include the title of the proceeding; the assigned case number; the names,
addresses, telephone and attorney numbers of all attorneys involved in the proceeding,
or the fact that a party appears pro se with address and telephone number of the party
so appearing; and the assessment of fees and charges (public receivables). Notation of
judicial events shall set forth the date of the event and briefly define any documents,
orders, rulings, or judgments filed or entered in the case. The chronological case
summary shall also note the entry of orders, rulings and judgments in the record of
judgments and orders, the entry of judgments in the judgment docket (IC 33-17-2-31),
and file status (pending/decided) under section (G) of this rule. The chronological
case summary shall be an official record of the trial court and shall be maintained
apart from other records of the court and shall be organized by case number.
- Cases involving situations in which one party is seeking to collect on a debt and there is little doubt that the debt exists. If there is some dispute about whether the debt actually exists, (ie: at question is the interpretation of the actual or implied contract) then the case will likely be filed as Civil Plenary instead.
- A case type designating civil cases in which the parties are generally engaged in litigation over a contract or some other business dealing involving real or personal property and claiming only Equitable or Injunctive Relief. If a small claims defendant requests a jury trial, the Small Claims case will usually become a Civil Plenary case. Between 1991 and 2002, these cases bore the code designation "CP". From 2002 to the present, these cases bear the code designation "PL".
- Case type designating civil cases in which the claim goes beyond a simple contract interpretation and "wrongful" actions (or inactions) are alleged. Under this case type, one may find personal injury, malpractice, slander etc... Because a Civil Tort case may result in the finding that someone acted in a negligent or malicious manner, part of the relief may include Punitive Damages in addition to Compensatory Damages.
- Schedule or calendar of cases before a court, not to be confused with a docket sheet.
- A commonly used term to refer to Decided cases.
- Alternate term for Chronological Case Summary. It should not be confused with the Court Docket.
- A form of remedy in a civil case that may be requested when legal remedies such as payment of money are not sufficient to compensate the plaintiff. Examples of Equitable Relief are Injunctive Relief and Specific Performance.
- A written document concerning the case given to the court. This includes complaints, motions, and answers, among others.
- A record created to represent liability that a person or company has
incurred in another county. Foreign Judgments are usually filed in an effort to bring these liabilities to the
attention of anyone researching the debtor in the county in which they live or own property. Many Indiana counties
store Foreign Judgments in their local Case Management System
under the case types "MI" or "FJ". To see which Doxpop counties make Foreign Judgments available on our system,
please visit our list of partner courts in detail.
- An order in a civil case, sought by the plaintiff, in which the court orders the defendant to cease and desist from particular action(s) that the court has ruled unfairly harm the plaintiff.
- A document produced by a court that offers an opinion or verdict.
- An index similar to the Record of Judgments and Orders containing only Judgments for Civil cases involving monetary awards. In some offices, this is combined into the Record of Judgments and Orders as a single indexed set of books.
- A notice filed by a party that intends to sue another party. The purpose of a Lis Pendens is to notify the public that a suit is being prepared and hence those intending to deal with the party to be sued should be aware that a lien or liability may soon exist.
- A narrative description in the court record, usually brief, of activity that occurred in the case on a particular date. A minute entry might indicate, for example, that parties appeared in court, that a hearing was rescheduled, or that notice was successfully served upon a party in the case.
- A relatively new designation in Indiana for cases involving foreclosure of a loan on Real Property. Before 2002, Mortgage Foreclosures were all filed as "Civil Tort" cases.
- An official petition to a judge, asking for a ruling such as an order or judgment.
- A minute entry which corrects or replaces a previous entry. Minute entries are not supposed to be substantially altered after being initially entered, so a second entry is required instead of editing the first. (Nunc pro tunc means "now for then" in Latin.)
- A document produced by a court that commands something to be done.
- See Record of Judgments and Orders.
- Someone with specialized training who does legal work under the supervision of an attorney.
- A movable item over which ownership can be claimed (as opposed to Real Property, which is fixed in place). Examples include livestock, cars, and boats.
- A Petition for Judicial Review is a case filed by a former defendant who was found guilty and thinks something was done wrong in the original case. In this case type, everyone involved in prosecuting the original case is named as a Defendant, so the prosecuting attorney and Judge are shown as defendants.
- Relief to a plaintiff that may be awarded in addition to Compensatory Damages when the court finds that a defendant acted in a negligent or malicious manner, causing damage to the plaintiff.
- See Record of Judgments and Orders.
- The Record of Judgments and Orders (also known as an RJO or Order Book) is a compilation of all judgments, orders and opinions of the court maintained in an easily indexed fashion by the Clerk of Court. The Record of Judgments and Orders is typically a series of bound paper books indexed from the case file and CCS by book and page number. A few Indiana Courts keep RJOs on microfilm or electronically.
- Describes a case which was once decided, but is now pending for new action (for instance, a case in which a contempt citation is filed because a party fails to comply with an order on a decided case).
- The delivery of legal documents concerning a case to a party involved in the case.
- Cases in which the amount claimed is $6,000.00 or less. In Indiana, this amount increased from $3,000.00 on July 1st, 2005. Small claims usually involve a business transaction, but a tort case involving relief of $6,000.00 or less may also be filed as a Small Claim. A defendant in a Small Claim case may request a jury trial. If this occurs, the case will usually be redocketed as a Civil Plenary or Civil Tort case.
- Not actually a court case, but a notice of judgment issued by the Indiana
Department of Revenue that publicly establishes a lien against the property of a debtor for unpaid and overdue
Indiana state taxes. Not to be confused with county "tax sales" or a federal tax debt, many Indiana counties store Tax
Warrants in their local Case Management System under the case type
"TW". To see which Doxpop counties make Tax Warrants available on our system, please visit our list of partner courts in detail.
Recorder Terms
- A piece of land that has been joined to a town or city, and which is platted to define its borders, lots, and blocks. The plat of the addition is filed with the Recorder of the county and serves as the legal definition for the addition. On our system, an addition is a type of tract and you may search for the name of an addition in the tract field.
- Piece of platted land belonging to a tract, used in part to find and identify the legal boundaries of that piece of land. A block typically contains a number of lots and a tract can have many blocks.
- Amount paid to a Recorder for reproduction of recorded documents. In Indiana, a Recorder is required by state law to charge one dollar for every page reproduced from a recorded document. If you buy a page copy through Doxpop, your total cost includes the one dollar per page fee, which is passed along directly to the recorder.
- The written document which transfers title or an interest in real property to another person or entity.
- Part of a town or city which is platted to define its borders, lots, and blocks. The plat of the division is filed with the Recorder of the county and serves as the legal definition of land in the division. In Doxpop, a division is a type of tract, and you can search for the name of a division in the tract field.
- In the context of Real Property law and assessment, an Improvement means a building or other immovable object which "improves" the value of the parcel of land on which it is immovably affixed. Mobile homes are considered Personal Property rather than an improvement on Real Property because they can be moved.
- Information in the Recorder's database indicating the existence, type, date, parties to, and location of documents, as opposed to the actual documents or facsimile images of them.
- A lot is a piece of platted land, used in part to find and identify the legal boundaries for that piece of land. A lot is smaller than a block and there are usually many lots within each block for a tract.
- A documented agreement in which a property owner pledges the title to that property to a lender as security for a loan.
- A document attesting that the terms of a mortgage have been satisfied and that the lender surrenders claim to the property specified in the mortgage as security.
- Plat filed at the time of the incorporation of a town or city. This plat changes the legal definition of land within the town limits such that it is no longer described by its location in the country-wide section-township-range grid. This plat is usually later divided and added to by other plats.
- The fund used by the county Recorder (Indiana) to maintain and preserve recorded public documents permanently. In Indiana this fund is supplied through recording fees as well as a statutory charge of one dollar per page collected by the Recorder for copies of those documents. See also Copy Fee.
- A graphic representation or map delineating townships and sections, including some geographical features, based upon the data collected by surveyors.
- Land that is within the limits of a city or town, described by lot, block, and tract. An example of this type of land description is "Lot 12 Block 3 Bakerson's Addition". A plat is filed in the Recorder's Office for every division, addition, and tract for incorporated towns and cities in the county.
- A square 1/2 mile by 1/2 mile unit of land (160 acres), one-fourth of the section-township-range in which unplatted land is located. This is denoted by NW or Pt NW, for example, in a legal description. It is not unusual to see even more specific directions, such as SWNW, which would mean the land in question is in the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of a section-township-range. When searching on Doxpop, the quarter field can be used to search for directions of the form NW, SWNW, WNW, etc. Land smaller than a quarter quarter quarter section, which is 1/8 mile by 1/8 mile (10 acres), is typically platted.
- In the U.S. public land surveying system, a north-south column of townships, identified as being east or west of a reference longitudinal meridian--for example, Range 3 West. See also Section and Township.
- Land or Improvements on land.
- The official charged with the permanent preservation of recorded public documents. In Indiana, the elected county Recorder. In other states the person performing this function may be called the Recorder of Deeds or by another title.
- Describes a document submitted to the county Recorder for permanent preservation of the document and/or its image as a public document. The Recorder charges a fee for recording each document submitted.
- A square mile unit of land, 640 acres and 1/36th of a township in the U.S. public land surveying system. See also Township and Range.
- Ownership of real property or personal property. The document that denotes ownership of real estate property is known as a deed.
- In the U.S. public land surveying system, a geographic division of land within a base line and meridian grid location framework. Townships are six miles square and further subdivided into 36 sections of 640 acres each. See also Section and Range. Also refers to political subdivisions of a county that are of variable size and irregular shape.
- A large piece of land in a town or city that has been broken into blocks and lots, is defined by a plat filed in the Recorder's Office, and is recognized as the legal definition for that land. Examples of tracts are additions, divisions, and subdivisions.
- Land that is not defined legally by a plat, usually found outside of town and city limits. This land is commonly identified by its section, township, and range and occasionally the directional quarter of the range of the land, as well as the number of acres included.
- A standard procedure used in most Recorder's offices when entering indexing information, requiring that two different people review the information. The first person enters the information and the second verifies that it is correct. This usually happens before the document is scanned into an image file.
Doxpop and Technical Terms
- A code, chosen by the user, used to sort searhes into categories. Each category generally signifies a client. Searches can later be sorted by code so that clients can be billed per search.
- A Doxpop tool that enables a registered user to request e-mail notification any time there is new activity on a particular case. Setting a watch activates a "trigger" that automatically sends a message whenever there is a change related to the specified cause number, in most cases within ten minutes of the entry of the activity on a local court case management system.
- A computer system designed to prevent unauthorized access to the secure or private parts of a computer or computer network.
- A computer program developed to enable two or more software programs that were not specifically designed to work together to interact in a particular way. For example, an interface might be developed to enable a program on one computer system to export data to another program on a separate computer system.
- Sometimes abbreviated "PIM", a Personal Information Manager is a program that organizes and stores personal information such as appointments and contact information on a PC or handheld device. The Doxpop Schedule Notification Service and links throughout the web site allow Doxpop users to easily download court hearing information into the most popular Personal Information Managers.
- A Doxpop tool that enables a registered user to request e-mail notification any time there is new activity on a particular person. Setting a watch activates a "trigger" that automatically sends a message whenever there is a change related to the specified name, in most cases within ten minutes of the entry of the activity on a local court case management system.
- See Personal Information Manager
- Using her/his bar ID number an attorney can set up a Doxpop account to send e-mail notification any time a schedule change is entered by court staff on the local court case management system. Attorneys can also receive e-mail notice 15 minutes in advance of scheduled court appearances.
- The box in the upper left hand corner of a subscriber's screen that shows the number of searches made in the current billing period. Clicking on the counter will show more detailed information about your search history by user and billing code for each billing period.
- The geographic region a Doxpop user selects as the basis of a records search. Currently the options are to select a single county or the entire database. An enhancement scheduled for development will permit searching multiple specified counties within the aggregated database.
- A computer that receives, stores, and/or processes information for access by a number of computers and/or users from their personal or business workstation computers or other data management devices.
- Acronym for Universal Resource Locator or Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is the address of a particular site on the world-wide web or the Internet. Each URL is formatted on a conventional pattern.
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