Contempt Timeline Tracker — Active Proceedings Case List
A reporter covering a court patch is usually carrying six or eight live cases at once, each with a different trigger date. The strict liability rule applies to all of them simultaneously, and the one that catches people out is the case they had stopped thinking about.
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Contempt Timeline Tracker
Track active-proceedings status for cases you are covering, and get a strict-liability window warning under the Contempt of Court Act 1981 s.2. Saved locally in your browser only.
Not legal advice. This is an illustrative reminder tool only. Contempt risk depends on the specific content published, not just dates. Always seek legal advice for reporting on active criminal proceedings.
No cases tracked yet. Add a case above to see its active-proceedings status.
Suggested publication holds while active: avoid assertions of guilt or innocence, previous convictions, disputed confessions, identification evidence, and character/credibility commentary on witnesses or the accused. Factual, contemporaneous, fair reporting of what happens in open court is normally protected (s.4 CCA 1981), but commentary beyond that carries risk.
How it works
- You add a case with a name, an optional court, the arrest, summons or charge date, and an optional expected trial date. Entries are sorted by trigger date and stored in your own browser’s localStorage — nothing is sent anywhere, and clearing site data deletes the list.
- Each entry gets a status computed against today’s clock: “Not yet active” if the trigger date is in the future, “ACTIVE — strict liability applies” with a running count of days active, or “ACTIVE — trial imminent” in red when the trial date is fourteen days away or less.
- Once the expected trial date has passed it switches to “Trial passed — verify status” and tells you plainly that active status ends at the conclusion of proceedings, not on the listed date.
- A standing panel lists the categories to hold while a case is active: assertions of guilt or innocence, previous convictions, disputed confessions, identification evidence, and character or credibility commentary.
- Despite the description used elsewhere on the site, there is no field for recording that proceedings have concluded. The tracker records the start of the active period, not its end — you either delete the entry or keep reading “verify status”.
When to use it
- On a court patch, as the running list of which of your cases are currently inside the strict-liability window.
- At the start of a shift, to see which cases have a trial imminent before you commission or write anything about them.
- When handing a patch over to a colleague or to weekend cover, as the shape of what is live.
- When a story you filed months ago resurfaces and you need the trigger date to work out whether the case can still be prejudiced.
What it does not do
- Not legal advice. Contempt risk depends on what you publish, not on how many days have elapsed — a date-based tracker cannot tell you whether a given sentence is safe.
- It cannot see the case. Nothing here is connected to court listings, and the tool has no way to know whether a verdict has been returned, a case discontinued, or a s.4(2) order made since you typed the date in.
- The fourteen-day “trial imminent” threshold is an editorial convention chosen by the tool, not a statutory boundary. Prejudice risk does not step up on day fourteen.
- Data lives in one browser on one device. It does not sync, it is not backed up, and a colleague opening the same page sees an empty list.
- It records only the trigger date and an expected trial date. It has no way to record that proceedings ceased to be active, which is the event that actually ends your exposure.
More tools
This is one of the free tools on UK JournoHub. See the full tools index for the rest.
Related guides
Primary sources
- Contempt of Court Act 1981 Sch.1 — when proceedings are active— legislation.gov.uk
- Contempt of Court Act 1981 s.2 — the strict liability rule— legislation.gov.uk