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The public record, word by word

Seventeen entries built on the same five fields, so that a reader can check a term without leaving the page they were reading.

Illustrative image: a shallow wooden tray on a desk holding blank ruled index cards standing on edge, daylight from a window, not one card written on
Illustrative image. No photograph on this site documents a real place, document or person.

Every procedure described on this site rests on a handful of words that look ordinary and are not. A docket is not a courtroom. A finding of reasonable grounds is not a judgment. A headnote is not a ruling. A record is not a document. Readers who get those four wrong will misread everything built on them, and they are wrong in the same way every time: the everyday sense of the word is close enough to the technical one to feel safe.

This glossary takes seventeen of those words and gives each the same five lines: what it means, where a reader meets it, what it is not, which body publishes it, and where this entry comes from. The fifth line matters as much as the first. A definition without a source is an opinion, and a definition without a date is an opinion that has stopped being checked.

The entries are grouped in four families: the words of access, the words of a complaint, the words of professional regulation, and the words of a decision. Nothing here is legal advice, and the folio Why nothing here is legal advice explains at length why that line is drawn where it is.

The words of access

The vocabulary of asking a public body for something it holds. All five entries are read from the access statute itself and from the state access page, on September 6, 2026.

  1. Public record

    What the word means
    The class of material a public body holds that the access law makes available on request, rather than a particular piece of paper.
    Where it appears
    At the top of any access request, and in every refusal, because the argument is almost always about whether the thing asked for falls inside the class.
    What it is not
    Not the same as a document. A document is an object; a public record is a legal category that some objects fall into and others do not.
    Who publishes it
    The Maine Freedom of Access Act, and the state access pages that summarise it.
    Source of this entry
    maine.gov/foaa and Title 1, section 408-A of the Maine Revised Statutes, read September 6, 2026.

    Entry checked September 6, 2026

  2. Acknowledgement

    What the word means
    The confirmation that a request has been received, which the statute requires within 5 working days of receiving the request.
    Where it appears
    As the first thing that should come back after a request is sent, and as the first thing that is missing when nothing comes back at all.
    What it is not
    Not an answer, and not a promise of one. Acknowledging a request commits a body to nothing about the material itself.
    Who publishes it
    Every agency and official covered by the access law.
    Source of this entry
    Title 1, section 408-A, subsection 3, read September 6, 2026.

    Entry checked September 6, 2026

  3. Good faith estimate

    What the word means
    A non binding indication of the time frame within which a body expects to answer, which the statute requires within a reasonable time of the request.
    Where it appears
    In the acknowledgement or shortly after it, usually as a sentence rather than a date.
    What it is not
    Not a deadline. The statute calls it nonbinding in its own words, which means it cannot be enforced as a promise.
    Who publishes it
    The agency or official holding the material.
    Source of this entry
    Title 1, section 408-A, subsection 3, read September 6, 2026.

    Entry checked September 6, 2026

  4. Staff time fee

    What the word means
    The charge a body may make for the work of finding and preparing records: nothing for the first 2 hours per request, then not more than $25 per hour.
    Where it appears
    In a cost estimate, where it is normally the largest line and the one that varies most between requests.
    What it is not
    Not a copying charge. Copying is priced separately, at no more than 10 cents per page for a standard black and white page.
    Who publishes it
    The agency or official answering the request.
    Source of this entry
    Title 1, section 408-A, subsection 8, paragraphs A and B, read September 6, 2026.

    Entry checked September 6, 2026

  5. Advance payment

    What the word means
    Payment required before the work starts, which the statute permits when the estimated total cost exceeds $100.
    Where it appears
    On large requests, where it turns an estimate into a decision the requester has to make before seeing anything.
    What it is not
    Not a fee in itself, and not a refusal. It is a condition on when the money is handed over.
    Who publishes it
    The agency or official answering the request.
    Source of this entry
    Title 1, section 408-A, subsection 10, paragraph A, read September 6, 2026.

    Entry checked September 6, 2026

The words of a complaint

The vocabulary of an administrative discrimination file. All four entries are read from the commission pages that describe what happens after a complaint is filed, on September 6, 2026.

  1. Respondent

    What the word means
    The party a complaint is made against, who receives a copy of it together with a request for information and documents.
    Where it appears
    From the first stage of the file, since the commission sends the complaint on rather than investigating it silently.
    What it is not
    Not a defendant. Nobody is being prosecuted, and the file is not a case in a court.
    Who publishes it
    The Maine Human Rights Commission, in its own account of the process.
    Source of this entry
    maine.gov/mhrc/file/after, read September 6, 2026.

    Entry checked September 6, 2026

  2. Investigator report

    What the word means
    The document an investigator prepares containing a summary of the facts given by both sides and a recommendation to the commission.
    Where it appears
    Late in the file, and it is the document most often mistaken for a verdict because it reads like one.
    What it is not
    Not a decision. The recommendation binds nobody: the commissioners vote afterwards, and may vote against it.
    Who publishes it
    The Commission, through the investigator assigned to the file.
    Source of this entry
    maine.gov/mhrc/file/after, read September 6, 2026.

    Entry checked September 6, 2026

  3. Reasonable grounds

    What the word means
    The commission’s own term for the finding that there are grounds to believe unlawful discrimination occurred; its opposite is no reasonable grounds.
    Where it appears
    In the investigator’s recommendation, and again in the vote taken at a commission meeting open to the public.
    What it is not
    Not a ruling that discrimination happened. The words are believe and grounds, and both are doing work.
    Who publishes it
    The Maine Human Rights Commission.
    Source of this entry
    maine.gov/mhrc/file/after, read September 6, 2026.

    Entry checked September 6, 2026

  4. Right to sue

    What the word means
    A request a complainant may make after 180 days or more, which causes the administrative complaint to be dismissed.
    Where it appears
    When a file is taking longer than a complainant can wait, since full investigations are published as taking several months to over a year.
    What it is not
    Not a permission to sue that did not exist before, and not a finding of any kind. It closes the administrative file.
    Who publishes it
    The Maine Human Rights Commission.
    Source of this entry
    maine.gov/mhrc/file/after, read September 6, 2026.

    Entry checked September 6, 2026

The words of professional regulation

The vocabulary of the bodies that register professionals and publish what happens when one is disciplined. Read from the Board of Overseers of the Bar site on September 6, 2026.

  1. Board of Overseers

    What the word means
    An independent agency under the jurisdiction of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, created by that Court in 1978 to govern the conduct of lawyers as officers of the Court.
    Where it appears
    Behind every published disciplinary decision about a Maine lawyer, and behind the attorney directory.
    What it is not
    Not a professional association and not a lobby. It was created by a court, not by the profession.
    Who publishes it
    The Board itself, which publishes its own description.
    Source of this entry
    mebaroverseers.org, read September 6, 2026.

    Entry checked September 6, 2026

  2. Grievance complaint

    What the word means
    The category of complaint a regulator handles about professional conduct, kept separate on the Board site from fee disputes.
    Where it appears
    At the entry point of the regulatory process, where the first question is which of the two categories a matter belongs to.
    What it is not
    Not a claim for money back. That is the fee dispute route, and the site treats it as a different thing.
    Who publishes it
    The Board of Overseers of the Bar.
    Source of this entry
    mebaroverseers.org, read September 6, 2026.

    Entry checked September 6, 2026

  3. Certificate of good standing

    What the word means
    A document issued by a regulator confirming a practitioner’s current registration status, listed among the things the Board publishes.
    Where it appears
    Where a professional status has to be shown to a third party rather than asserted.
    What it is not
    Not a statement about competence or about the quality of anybody’s work. It records registration, nothing else.
    Who publishes it
    The Board of Overseers of the Bar.
    Source of this entry
    mebaroverseers.org, read September 6, 2026.

    Entry checked September 6, 2026

  4. Disciplinary decision

    What the word means
    A published order recording the outcome of a disciplinary matter, listed by date with the respondent’s name, the order issued and the disposition.
    Where it appears
    In the public list on the regulator’s site, which is where a professional record becomes checkable by anyone.
    What it is not
    Not a criminal record and not a court judgment. It is the act of a regulator, published under its own rules.
    Who publishes it
    The Board of Overseers of the Bar.
    Source of this entry
    mebaroverseers.org, read September 6, 2026.

    Entry checked September 6, 2026

The words of a decision

The vocabulary of the documents courts produce, and of the lists they keep. Court descriptions read from the Maine Judicial Branch site on September 6, 2026.

  1. Docket

    What the word means
    The running list on which a matter is entered and tracked. A court may keep several at once, including specialised ones.
    Where it appears
    In the phrase statewide court docket, which the Judicial Branch uses to describe its Business and Consumer Court.
    What it is not
    Not a courtroom, not a building and not a case. It is a list, and a case sits on it.
    Who publishes it
    The Maine Judicial Branch.
    Source of this entry
    courts.maine.gov/courts, read September 6, 2026.

    Entry checked September 6, 2026

  2. Law Court

    What the word means
    The Supreme Judicial Court sitting to decide appeals on questions of law arising in civil actions and criminal trials.
    Where it appears
    At the top of the appeal route, and in citations, where its name identifies the level a decision comes from.
    What it is not
    Not a trial court. It decides questions of law on appeal, not questions of fact at first instance.
    Who publishes it
    The Maine Judicial Branch.
    Source of this entry
    courts.maine.gov/courts, read September 6, 2026.

    Entry checked September 6, 2026

  3. Headnote

    What the word means
    A summary placed at the head of a reported decision. The Judicial Branch pages read on September 6, 2026 do not describe headnotes, and this entry does not supply what they leave out.
    Where it appears
    At the top of a reported case, and in most secondhand accounts of it, because it is the easiest part to quote.
    What it is not
    Not the holding, and not authority. A court is bound by what it wrote, not by what a publisher wrote about it.
    Who publishes it
    The publisher of the reported series, not the court.
    Source of this entry
    Convention of law reporting; the Judicial Branch pages read September 6, 2026 do not describe headnotes.

    Entry checked September 6, 2026

  4. Disposition

    What the word means
    The operative closing part of a decision, which states what is actually ordered as opposed to what is reasoned.
    Where it appears
    At the end of the document, and in regulators’ published lists, where a disposition is recorded next to each order.
    What it is not
    Not the discussion. The reasoning explains the disposition and can be long; the disposition itself is usually a sentence.
    Who publishes it
    The court or regulator that issued the decision.
    Source of this entry
    mebaroverseers.org (which lists orders and dispositions) and courts.maine.gov, read September 6, 2026.

    Entry checked September 6, 2026