Prosecutor's Guide to Intake and Screening

Abstract

This guide is for prosecutors. In this guide, we assume that every prosecutor faces the common problem of "separating wheat from the chaff", i.e. declining poor cases and accepting good ones for prosecution. This is the task of intake and screening. An experienced prosecutor can quickly tell whether most cases will ever be successfully concluded. If deficient cases are quickly removed from the office's inventory, time will not be wasted on them and can be invested in cases that need it.

How the prosecutor does this is usually decided by his policy towards prosecution, his resources and his coordination with other agencies, especially the police, and the courts.