after the fact

Idioms  

1. After an actual occurrence, particularly after a crime. For example, I know the brakes should have been repaired, but that doesn't help much after the fact. The use of fact for a crime dates from the first half of the 1500s. The word became standard in British law and is still used in this way today. The idiom was first recorded in 1769 in the phrase accessories after the fact, referring to persons who assist a lawbreaker after a crime has been committed. Now it is also used more loosely, as in the example above.

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Example Sentences

Sorting out who should pay for what after the fact can be frustrating for everyone involved.

From MarketWatch

A person subject to sanctions is informed only after the fact—his chance to dispute the sanctions comes after the harm is already done.

From The Wall Street Journal

In many cases, getting accurate October numbers after the fact wasn’t possible, the BLS said, because the agency doesn’t like to rely on polling people about prices from previous months that they might not remember accurately.

From The Wall Street Journal

But the magnitude of these mitigants can’t fully be judged until after the fact.

From The Wall Street Journal

“They had their own guards, they had their own police, they had their own everything. But you’d have to ask that question, really, to the school, not to the FBI. … The FBI will do a good job, but they came in after the fact.”

From Salon