Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Rules of Court Hand Out
Rules of Court Hand Out
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION – power of the State to try and punish a person for a violation of
its penal laws.
It is essential that the court must have jurisdiction over the offense and jurisdiction over the
person of the accused.
1. the offense is one which the court is by law authorized to take cognizance of
2. the offense must have been committed within its territorial jurisdiction
3. the person charged with the offense must have been brought to its presence for trial,
forcibly by warrant of arrest or upon his voluntary submission to the court.
For offenses where a preliminary investigation is required - by filing the complaint with
the proper officer for the purpose of conducting the requisite preliminary investigation.
INFORMATION DEFINED.
An Information is:
1. an accusation in writing;
2. charging a person with an offense;
3. subscribed by the prosecutor and filed with the court.
COMPLAINT
Subscribed by the offended party, any peace officer or other officer charged with the enforcement of
the law violated
PURPOSE:
PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION
is an inquiry or proceeding to determine whether there exists sufficient ground to
engender a well-founded belief that a crime has been committed and that the
respondent is probably guilty thereof, and should be held for trial
if a person is arrested, he can ask for preliminary investigation BEFORE the filing of
the complaint/information BUT he must sign a waiver in accordance with Article 125,
RPC.
AFTER the filing of the information/complaint, the accused may, within 5 days from
the time he learns of its filing ask for preliminary investigation.
Refuse to enter a plea upon arraignment and object to further proceedings upon such
ground
Insist on a preliminary investigation
File a certiorari, if refused
Raise lack of preliminary investigation as error on appeal
File for prohibition
PROBABLE CAUSE - presupposes a reasonable ground for belief in the existence of facts
warranting the proceedings complained of; an apparent state of facts found to exist upon
reasonable inquiry which would induce a reasonably intelligent and prudent man to
believe that the accused person had committed the crime charged.
ARREST - the taking of a person into custody in order that he may be bound to answer for
the commission of an offense
Modes of Arrest
BAIL - the security given for the release of a person in custody of the law, furnished by him
or a bondsman, conditioned upon his appearance before any court as required under the
conditions specified by the rule.
BAIL – DISCRETIONARY
To be presumed innocent
To be informed of the nature and the cause of the accusation against him.
To be present and defend in person and by counsel at every stage of the proceeding
Right to counsel
To testify as witness in his own behalf
Right against self-incrimination
Right to confront and cross examine the witnesses against him at trial
Right to speedy, impartial and public trial.
ARRAIGNMENT - the formal mode of implementing the constitutional right of the accused
to be informed of the nature of the accusation against him.
PLEA OF GUILTY
an unconditional admission of guilt, freely, voluntarily and made with full knowledge of
the consequences and meaning of his act and with a clear understanding of the
precise nature of the crime charged in the complaint or information;
The accused may withdraw his plea of guilt IF it is IMPROVIDENT at any time
BEFORE the judgment of conviction becomes final;
MOTION TO QUASH
is a hypothetical admission of the facts alleged in the information, hence the court in
resolving the motion cannot consider facts contrary to those alleged in the information
or which do not appear on the face of the information, except those admitted by the
prosecution.
GENERAL RULE: The accused may move to quash the complaint or information at
any time BEFORE entering his plea.
PRE-TRIAL
MATTERS CONSIDERED IN PRE-TRIAL CONFERENCE:
plea bargaining;
▪ stipulation of facts;
▪ marking for identification of evidence of the parties;
▪ waiver of objections to admissibility of evidence;
▪ modification of the order of trial if the accused admits the charge but interposes a
lawful defense; and such matters as will promote a fair and expeditious trial of the
criminal and civil aspects of the case.
PLEA BARGAINING
The process whereby the accused, the offended party and the prosecution work out a mutually
satisfactory disposition of the case subject to court approval. It usually involves the defendant’s
pleading guilty to a lesser offense or to only one or some of the counts of a multi-count indictment in
return for a lighter sentence than that for the graver charge
TRIAL
The examination before a competent tribunal according to the laws of the land, of the facts
put in issue in a case for the purpose of determining such issue
JUDGMENT
The adjudication by the court that the accused is guilty or not guilty of the offense charged and the
imposition of the proper penalty and civil liability provided for by the law.
APPEAL
a proceeding for review by which the whole case is transferred to the higher court for a final
determination
SEARCH WARRANT
an order in writing issued in the name of the People of the Philippines, signed by a judge
and directed to a peace officer commanding him to search for personal property described
therein and bring it before the court.
Search warrants are in the nature of criminal process and may be invoked only in
furtherance of public prosecutions. Search warrants have no relation to civil process or trials
and are not available to individuals in the course of civil proceedings, nor for the
maintenance of any mere private right
The term search as applied to searches and seizures is an examination of a man’s house or
other buildings or premises or of his person with a view to the discovery of contraband or
illicit or stolen property or some evidence of guilt to be used in the prosecution of a criminal
action for some offense with which he is charged
a search warrant which vaguely describes and DOES NOT particularize the personal
properties to be seized without a definite guideline to the searching team as to what items
might be lawfully seized, thus giving the officers of the law discretion regarding what articles
they should seize;
WARRANT OF ARREST
Order directed to the peace officer to execute the warrant by taking the person stated
therein into custody that he may be bound to answer for the commission of the
offense.
does not become stale
may be served on any day and at any time of day or night.
TEAM LEADER
SKETCH PREPARER
I .Diagram immediate area of scene and orient sketch with north;
2 .Set forth on sketch major items of evidence and coordinate evidence nomenclature
with Evidence Recovery Personnel;
3.Indicate adjacent buildings, rooms, furniture and so forth as needed;
4.Designate and label areas to be searched and advise team leader and all other
search members of nomenclature for
designated areas
5.Obtain appropriate assistance for taking measurements and, list assistant{s] on
sketch
6.lnsure necessary administrative information such as Scale disclaimer (not drawn to
scale) is recorded on sketch
SPECIALISTS
It is sometimes necessary to bring expertise from outside an agency. The held of forensic
science is so broad today no agency will have very form of specialty service available from
among its ranks. Typically, specialists are brought in from industry, the academic
community, private scientific laboratories and similar concerns.
When dealing with outside specialists some pertinent aspects to consider are:
The Competence and reliability of the specialist;
The ability of the specialist to work within law enforcement guidelines at a scene;
The role of the specialist in presenting expert testimony in court
Specialists should be identified before they are needed in an actual case. A current
list should be maintained if possible.
SPECIALISTS
The agency should meet with these individuals to determine the best manner to jointly
conduct search planning, operations and follow-up activity.
PREPARATION
Accumulate packaging and collection materials necessary for typical search
circumstances;
Prepare the preliminary format for the paperwork needed to document the conducting
of the search;
Insure that all specialists are aware of the overall forms of evidence usually
encountered, as well as the proper handling of these materials;
Evaluate the current legal ramifications of crime scene searches (e.g. Obtaining of
search warrants)
PREPARATION
Discuss upcoming search with involved personnel before arrival at scene, if possible;
Select, when feasible, person-in-charge prior to arrival at scene;
Make preliminary personnel assignments before arrival at scene, if practicable;
Consider the safety and comfort of search personnel - do not be caught unprepared
when encountering a potentially dangerous scene or inclement weather.
APPROACH SCENE
Be alert for discarded evidence
Make pertinent notes
Establish frame-on-min to take control of scene regardless of circumstances
observed on arrival
Consider personal safety
-This evaluation begins upon arrival at scene and becomes detailed i preliminary survey
stage
-Based on preliminary survey, establish evidence types most likely to be encountered
-Insure collection and packaging equipment is
-sufficient for task at hand - a given scene may require special techniques not normally used
Concentrate on the most transient evidence and work to the least transient forms of this
material;
Insure all personnel consider the great variety of possible evidence, not only evidence within
the scope of their respective specialties;
Focus first on the easily accessible areas in open view and progress eventually to possible
out-of-view locations - look for purposely hidden items;
The narrative is a running, general terms description of the condition of the crime sene
Do not permit narrative effort to degenerate into a sporadic and unorganized attempt to
recover physical evidence - it is recommended that evidence not be collected at this point,
under most circumstances