[legalxml-courtfiling] RE: Preliminary List of "Roles" in LegalProceedin

I think the list you have provided is fairly comprehensive in describing titles used in the various categories. Having a list of nouns used to designate officials and other actors (dare I say it?) in the law, safety, and justice system and providing that to GTRI is a helpful, important step.

Of course, the various titles are not precisely and exhaustively defined by the leading definition. Ultimately, to be useful in the Data Dictionary, terms all require defining. (At the Integrated Justice Technical Committee meeting, the GTRI consultants were very clear about their needing definitions supplied to them by subject matter experts.) While some terms are synonyms or not easily distinguished from one another because they reflect differences in local conventions (e.g., "judge," "circuit judge," "district judge"), the rest should be amenable to a more or less precise definition. Further, some of the distinctions (e.g., between "fact witness [plaintiff]" and "expert witness [defendant]") may not apply generally (i.e., many courts might call these "expert witnesses" or just "witnesses").

Would it be productive to put out a call for candidate definitions for these terms? I say "candidate" definitions, because they would have to be reviewed, reconciled, and so forth, to get to the precise and exhaustive definitions (or as close to that as possible) each of them should have. Also, synonymous terms need to be identified under a common definition. An alternative to asking everyone to help by a certain deadline might be to recruit a definitions work group, but such a group might best do the reconciling, etc., rather than having to come up with the candidate definitions on their own. I think casting a wide net to ask for candidate definitions could help us move forward in a very useful way.

Those are my 2-cents.

Regards,

Roger

Roger Winters

Electronic Court Records Manager

King County
Department of Judicial Administration

516 Third Avenue, E-609 MS: KCC-JA-0609

Seattle, Washington 98104

V: (206) 296-7838 F: (206) 296-0906

roger.winters@metrokc.gov

-----Original Message-----
From: Chambers, Rolly [mailto:rlchambers@smithcurrie.com]
Sent: Sunday, November 10, 2002 10:44 AM
To: legalxml-courtfiling@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Preliminary List of "Roles" in Legal Proceedings

At the TC meeting at MIT in Boston last month, John Greacen and I agreed to come up with a list of specific "roles" commonly filled by various participants in a formal legal proceeding. We want to provide the list to GTRI from the TC in connection with the GTRI work on a Justice XML Data Dictionary.

This is a preliminary list of proposed general categories of participants in a legal proceeding and of specific "roles" within those general categories. I have not given John a chance to review this preliminary list in advance, so criticisms, questions, etc. should be directed to me. Each category description identifies the primary context of the role (its relationship to something else involved in a legal proceeding) in parentheses and includes a brief definition of the "role".

This preliminary list is simply to get the ball rolling. I've no doubt missed some roles. John and I both will welcome further postings and suggestions regarding additional "roles" to add to this list.

Rolly Chambers

List of specific roles of actors/participants in a legal proceeding:

- judicialOfficer (of a court) - a person appointed to decide or administer a case in a court
     justice
     chief justice
     associate justice
     judge
     presiding judge
     chief judge
     magistrate
     magistrate judge
     superior court judge
     district judge
     district court judge
     circuit judge
     circuit court judge
     special master
     clerk
     clerk of court
     assistant clerk
     assistant clerk of court
     registrar
     notary
     court reporter
     arbitrator
     mediator

- administrativeOfficer (of an agency) - a person in an agency appointed to decide a case
     hearing officer
     board member
     board chair
     vice chair
     chair
     commissioner
     assistant commissioner
     deputy commissioner
     administrative law judge
     general counsel
     witness (for a party) - a person sworn or to be sworn to testify in a case
     fact witness (for plaintiff)
     expert witness (for defendant)
     deponent
     affiant
     declarant

- attorney (for a party) - a person authorized to represent a party in a case
     attorney (for a party - e.g. Attorney for Plaintiff )
     district attorney
     deputy district attorney
     prosecutor
     assistant prosecutor
     prosecuting attorney
     US attorney
     assistant US attorney
     public defender
     assistant public defender

- enforcementOfficer (of a law enforcement agency) - a person appointed as a law enforcement      officer
     detective
     officer
     patrolman
     deputy
     sheriff
     investigating officer
     arresting officer
     agent

- party (in a case) - a person, organization, or In Rem "thing" that is a party in a case
     plaintiff
     defendant
     petitioner
     respondent
     third-party plaintiff
     third-party defendant
     complainant
     additional defendant
     claimant
     appellant
     appellee
     plaintiff-intervenor
     intervenor plaintiff
     intervenor defendant
     amicus curiae

- victim (of a crime or incident) - a person or organization that is a victim of a crime or incident

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