5-5.1 TRACKING WITHIN THE UNITED STATES TRUSTEE PROGRAM
5-5.1.1 Tracking by the Office of Review and Oversight
The Office of Review and Oversight (ORO) maintains a data base to track criminal referrals made by the Program. At the end of each calendar quarter, ORO will furnish each United States Trustee with a report detailing the referrals made by his/her region. The referrals will be divided into two categories.
- Open referrals, which encompass all referrals last reported as either ongoing, open, or pending, as well as those with a pending indictment, information, or complaint.
- Referrals with final dispositions, which encompass all referrals last reported as having been closed by the investigative agency, or declined by the United States Attorney or other appropriate authority, or which have a final conviction, acquittal, or dismissal of charges.
5-5.1.2 Tracking Within the Region/Office
Each region/office must track all referrals it has made until they are closed through declination, prosecution, etc., and submit an updated report to ORO each quarter providing information on new referrals and the status of all open referrals, paying particular attention to those that are more than one year old.
Where the United States Trustee knows that the case will be declined (i.e., a class 3 referral), the referral may be opened and closed at the same time on the quarterly report.
5-5.2 CASE TRACKING WITHIN THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
Each United States Attorney's office uses a system that tracks cases from the time a file is opened until a case is closed. Cases that are declined with less than one hour's work are not reported on this system. Investigations and other proceedings where no formal charges have been lodged are called "matters," and each is given its own initial matter number. A matter becomes a "case" and is assigned a case number only after formal charges have been made via indictment or information. Usually, there is at least a 30-day lag in updates to the United States Attorneys' tracking system. At the present time, the system only tracks cases by the lead charge.