Under what circumstances is a legal case named "The People vs. ..."

Question

I am intrigued by the naming of the case against Trump "The People vs. Donald Trump." As I understand it, most criminal cases are named for the jurisdiction prosecuting and the defendant. What would cause a case to be named for "The People?"

Answer 1

TL;DR it’s just a stylistic convention based on jurisdiction, and New York uses “The People.”

Criminal cases in common-law countries are traditionally titled as the sovereign versus the defendant. In countries with the British King as head of state, they���re brought in the name of the monarch and written as “R v [defendant]” (R stands for Rex or Regina, Latin for “King” or “Queen”). In the US, you obviously can’t use that, so states use “State of [state]” or “People of [state]” to reflect US-style sovereignty. There’s no actual difference between any of these, it’s just a style thing (sort of like “state” vs. “commonwealth”). Within the state’s courts, that’s normally abbreviated further to “State v.” or “People v.” (if you’re citing a case from a New York court, it’s obvious what people you’re talking about).

Almost all states use “State of [state],” but New York is among the handful who use “People.” Trump’s case was in NYC and so used “People.” California also uses “People,” so between the LA and NYC media markets it feels a lot more common than it really is.

Answer 2

A criminal prosecution would generally be The People of Some Jurisdiction v. Defendant's Full Name. The conventional shorthand for that would be Jurisdiction v. Defendant's Last Name. But a news report could reasonably use People v Defendant's Last Name as a non-conventional shorthand.

Answer 3

If and only if it is a prosecution under the law of California, Illinois, Michigan or New York.