Question: My
office has traditionally only entered the charge in an indictment that we think carries the
highest Weighted Case Open amount, in defenderData – even for cases that have
many charges against the client.
I’ve noticed in trainings that you’ve
referred to data that will be available by looking at the charge information from when the
case is opened in dData.
Should we be entering all of the charges against the
client in the indictment, when we open the case in dData?
Answer:
YES!
Chapter 18 contemplates that all charges against a client in a complaint,
information, or indictment will be entered into dData when the case is opened.
Mechanisms within dData will then select the charge that is assigned the case
weight.
As a general matter, it is important to
enter all charges against the client to
allow the dData mechanism to assign the weight. Picking and choosing reported
charges undermines the consistency of weighting and case opening, and will then
undermine the reliability of the RAND WCO approach.
For the Work Measurement Study, it is
critical that all charges against a client be entered. For example, there is no
“gun” Workload Driver. If an office only reports a Section 841 (drug) count,
but does not enter a Section 922(g) (gun) count, the data will not reflect the
presence of a weapon in the charges. We anticipate that the presence of a gun
in a case complicates the defense and requires more resources. If all charges
are not reported, there will be no data relating to a gun in this example. The
office will then lose an opportunity to explain their resource requirements
because of a docket with many weapon allegations.
On a related note, it is equally important
to update charges in dData when superseding charges are brought. Without those
updates, the Work Measurement Study will have no data relating to those
(typically more-serious) allegations.
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