True Bill
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia · John Bouvier; revised by Francis Rawle · 1914
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia
In Practice. Words indorsed on a bill of indictment when a grand jury, after having heard the witnesses for the government, are of opinion that there is sufficient cause to put the defendant on his trial. Formerly the indorsement was Billa vera when legal proceedings were in Latin; it is still the practice to write on the back of the bill Ignoramus when the jury do not find it to be a true bill; the better opinion is that the omission of the words a true bill does not vitiate an indictment; Com. v. Smyth, 11 Cush. (Mass.) 473; State v. Freeman, 13 N. H. 488.
See Grand Jury.