Broadly speaking, forensic linguistics (FL) addresses all language and law intersections, and uses scientific language study to resolve forensic troubles. This overview clarifies historical antecedents and progress of FL, as well as its scope and functions via a debate of some of its practical applications and academic manifestations, in the domains of language use in judicial processes, the analysis of language for legal or investigative goals and the development of processes and frameworks to explore language and (and at) its intersection with the law. There is a growing demand for academic skills in the expanding FL discipline. Methodological innovations as e.g. to visual data transcription will allow to grasp verbal communication nuances and developments in the field like in interpreter-moderated police interviews reveal the delicacies of translating meaning and the need of specific ('beyond language') training.