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Definition of no Bill

No Bill is the term used by the Grand Jury, which is written on the front of the bill of indictment. An indictment is the document which identifies the suspect and a list of potential criminal charges the state believes the suspect may have committed. The prosecutor presents the indictment to the grand jury along with evidence. After hearing the evidence from the prosecutor if the grand jury decides the formal charges against a defendant have not been sufficiently supported by the evidence presented they will write "No Bill" across the top of the indictment. This process is only used in jurisdictions which use a grand jury, which is a group of randomly selected citizens from a community, to decide if a suspect should be brought to trial.

If the grand jury submits a no bill the prosecution has several options: they can either submit a new indictment to the same grand jury or call another grand jury. Some jurisdictions allow the prosecution to keep submitting indictments indefinitely; others limit the number of times it can be submitted. Some jurisdictions do not allow the prosecutor to submit a second indictment to the grand jury without approval from the court.

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