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Criminal case triage

Let's find out how urgent this is

Triage asks a few structured questions to identify the jurisdiction, procedural stage, and alleged charge — enough to point you to the right information and, if you choose, the right lawyer.

If this is an emergency

  • If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.
  • If you or someone else is in crisis or thinking about suicide, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), available 24/7.
  • If you are the victim of a crime, Criminal.law is a defense-side resource and is not the right place — please seek victim-support services in your area.

What triage asks

  1. 1Are you asking for yourself, or for someone else?
  2. 2Is anyone currently in custody?
  3. 3Are police attempting to conduct an interview?
  4. 4Is there a warrant?
  5. 5Has a charge been filed?
  6. 6Is there an upcoming court date?
  7. 7Is the matter state or federal?
  8. 8Where did the alleged conduct occur? (state & county)
  9. 9Is the person on probation, parole, or pretrial release?
  10. 10Is there a no-contact or release condition?

What triage never asks

It will never ask you to describe what happened, to name anyone, or to say what you told police. The system usually knows the procedural category and charge without knowing your factual narrative (Charge-Not-Facts, doctrine §2.1).

The interactive, path-routing triage is built in Phase 3 (doc #7) and does not go live until the first-real-user-message wall — G2 (zero-persistence) and G3 (behavioral safety) — is green. This page is the structural scaffold; it stores nothing.

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