How to read an evidence grade

Most coverage of alleged wrongdoing blurs very different things together: an investigation, a charge and a conviction can all end up in the same sentence. LegalEvidence separates them with a single letter on every flag.

The five grades

A — Adjudicated

A competent authority has decided: a court judgment, a regulator's enforcement order, a sanctions designation. This is the only grade that describes a finding.

B — Proceeding

A formal process is live but undecided — a charge, an indictment, an investigation a regulator has confirmed. Nothing has been determined. A warrant is an allegation with a signature on it, and it is graded as one.

C — Documented allegation

Credible, sourced reporting or primary material, with no authority having acted on it. These claims need corroboration and are written that way.

D — Documented indicator

A verified fact or circumstance that does not itself establish wrongdoing — incorporation in a jurisdiction with a closed ownership register, for instance, or nominee directors. These are lawful and common. They matter only in combination.

X — Cleared, Reversed or Resolved

Previously flagged and since resolved: acquitted, delisted, overturned or expired. We keep these on the record, because deleting them would leave an incomplete picture for anyone who saw the original.

What a grade is not

A grade is not a verdict on a person, a prediction, or a recommendation to do business or not. It records the state of the evidence on the day the record was last verified — and it moves only when the evidence does.

When an editor changes a flag from its default grade, the reason is written down and published with it. You can read the full rules in our evidence standards.