Prima facie Prima facie Prima facie (; ) is a Latin expression meaning "on its first encounter" or "at first sight". The literal translation would be "at first face" or "at first appearance", from the feminine forms of "primus" ("first") and "facies" ("face"), both in the ablative case. In modern, colloquial and conversational English, a common translation would be "on the face of it". The term "prima facie" is used in modern legal English (including both civil law and criminal law) to signify that upon initial examination, sufficient corroborating evidence appears to exist to support a case. In common law jurisdictions, "prima
Accessory (legal term) and "accessory-after-the-fact" were used in England and the United States but are now more common in historical than in current usage. The spelling accessary is occasionally used, but only in this legal sense. The English legal authority William Blackstone, in his "Commentaries", defined an accessory as: He goes on to define an "accessory-before-the-fact" in these words: and an "accessory-after-the-fact" as follows: The "Criminal Code" has several sections which deal with accessory to offences: For these purposes, "abetting" means "to encourage or set on" and an "abettor" is "an instigator or setter on, one who promotes or procures a crime to