Superior Court Statistical Reporting Manual

10. CASES RESOLVED

Case processing time standards are published in the Washington Rules of Court. The time standards identify three major milestones in the life of a case: filing, resolution, and completion. Case "resolution" occurs when the case is "tried, settled, or otherwise concluded;" that is, resolution is defined as the adjudication or settlement of all issues in a case (e.g., plea, fact finding decision, continued prosecution, oral order).

Case "completion" occurs when all necessary dispositive documents have been filed with the clerk.

A case must be resolved before it can be completed. In certain situations, resolution and completion can occur simultaneously (e.g., court decision of acquittal, order of dismissal). The case resolution date must be on the same day or prior to the case completion date entered on the SCOMIS basic screen.

The following table displays examples of decisions and orders involving resolution and/or completion.

RESOLUTION AND COMPLETION

Proceeding Decisions Resolved Completed
Court Decision Yes No
Guilty Plea Yes No
Dismissed on Prosecutor's Motion Yes No

Judicial Orders
Order for Change of Venue Yes Yes
Order for Dismissal/Closure on Clerk's Motion Yes Yes
Order of Dismissal Yes Yes
Order of Disposition Yes Yes

Pursuant to office policy, courtroom clerks can determine case resolution if at the conclusion of a proceeding all charges in a case have been adjudicated. Since docketing clerks deal with maintaining the legal record, however, they can determine both case resolution and case completion. It is important that docketing clerks be advised of the adjudication of charges for which there is no documentation (e.g., oral dismissal).

Case resolution is recorded into the offense reporting category that corresponds to the most serious charge resulting in a conviction. For cases not resulting in a conviction, case resolution is recorded into the offense reporting category that corresponds to the charge which involved the greatest amount of judicial resources to obtain a resolution. (Example: A respondent is charged with murder and assault. The murder charge is dismissed before an adjudicatory hearing, and the respondent is acquitted of the assault charge. The case resolution would be counted as one acquittal under the assault offense reporting category.)

Mistrials - Do not record a case resolution if a mistrial occurs in a case. Record a resolution when the case has been retried or otherwise resolved. If the case is not retried it can be resolved and completed through the clerk's dismissal process or by judicial order.

To document the occurrence of a mistrial for the legal record, use the docket code "MSTRIAL."

Cases Reopened - For a reopened case the resolution and completion codes and dates should be removed and the case should proceed as if it was never resolved or completed. (Example: When there is an order vacating judgment, change the resolution and completion codes and dates to blank to reflect that the cases is no longer resolved and completed.) When all issues in the reopened case are resolved, enter the appropriate resolution code and date. When the reopened (and newly resolved) case reaches completion, enter the appropriate completion code and date (see Cases Reopened, page 8-7).

This may create a very small increase in resolutions since a few cases could have two resolutions reported in different calendar years. The reprocessing of monthly SCOMIS statistics in January for the previous year will eliminate the duplications that may have occurred during the previous calendar year.

Deferred Disposition - Continued prosecution (deferred adjudication) for juvenile offenders (RCW 13.40.125) was repealed effective July 1, 1997 (i.e., continued prosecution is no longer an option for juvenile offender cases involving charges with violation dates after July 1, 1997.) However, deferred disposition is now an option. Chapter 13.40 (RCW 13.40.127) was amended to provide for deferred dispositions with juvenile offenders.

The resolution code DDSP (Deferred Disposition) should be entered at the time the deferred disposition is granted rather than waiting until the deferment period is completed. These resolution codes should not be changed regardless of the outcome of the period of supervision. When a case is resolved with a deferred disposition, all charges subject to that agreement should receive a guilty (G) result code. Upon compliance with the conditions of supervision and vacation of the conviction by the court, each pertinent guilty result code should be changed to reflect the dismissal (D) charge outcome. If successful compliance is not obtained, then the guilty result code reflects the appropriate outcome for criminal history reporting.

Continued Prosecution - A case for which a respondent has been granted continued prosecution placing the juvenile under court supervision with specific conditions of behavior before there is any formal finding by the court. The continued prosecution resolution code ("CTOP") should be entered at the time the continuance is granted rather than waiting until the deferment period is completed.

This is a final resolution code, and should not be changed even when either (1) a respondent fulfills the conditions, or (2) prosecution is resumed. The outcome of each continued charge should be recorded with a result code on the SCOMIS charge screen (see Final Counts Resolved, pages 8-10).

Continued prosecution (deferred adjudication) for juvenile offenders (RCW 13.40.125) was repealed effective July 1, 1997. Therefore, continued prosecution should not be used for cases involving charges with violation dates after July 1, 1997. However, it remains an option for cases involving violation dates before July of 1997.

Vacation of Conviction – RCW 9.94A.230 states that every offender who has been discharged under RCW 9.94A.220 may apply to the sentencing court for a vacation of the offender’s record of conviction. If an order to vacate a conviction pursuant to RCW 9.94A.230 is issued, you should do the following.

(1) Change the result code for each charge covered by the order to “V” (Vacated Conviction -- Pursuant to RCW 9.94A.230).

(2) If there are no remaining guilty counts for the defendant, then change the defendant resolution code to “VOC” (Vacation of Conviction), and change the associated defendant resolution date to reflect the date of the order. (The defendant (DEF) resolution code and date are entered on the Charge Screen.) In multiple-defendant cases, only change the defendant resolution code for the defendants who have received the post-conviction vacation. [Note that for single-defendant cases, the only instance in which you do have to enter the defendant resolution code is for these rare cases in which there is a vacation of conviction pursuant to RCW 9.94A.230.]

(3) If there are no remaining guilty counts for any of the defendants, then change the case resolution code to “STCL” (Statistical Completion). (The case resolution code and date are entered on the Basic Screen.) Do not change the case resolution date. If there are remaining guilty counts for any defendant, then let then let the original case resolution code stand.

Note that vacated convictions are not reported in the caseload statistics.

Multiple Resolutions - In some instances a case has multiple result codes recorded on the final information filed on the SCOMIS charge screen. When this occurs it is necessary to choose the one case resolution category which best reflects the result code requiring the greatest amount of judicial time expended and the most serious case outcome. To assist in choosing the appropriate resolution code, the following resolution categories are ordered from least-to-most judicial time and case outcome severity, with the resolutions after adjudicatory hearing commencement listed last.

RESOLUTION CATEGORIES IN ASCENDING ORDER BY JUDICIAL TIME REQUIRED AND CASE OUTCOME SEVERITY

10.A. RESOLUTION BEFORE OR NOT INVOLVING AN ADJUDICATORY HEARING

10.A.a. DISMISSAL/CLOSURE BY CLERK (DSCK)

Resolution by the court where dismissal action is initiated by the clerk and approval by the court is granted as a matter of routine with no opposition by any party.

10.A.b. UNCONTESTED RESOLUTION

Uncontested Resolution (UNDS) - Final resolution of a case that is not contested in superior court, and is not dismissed (e.g., a non-charge case for which no information was filed). This includes a case that was previously adjudicated in another county, and is transferred to a subsequent county for sentencing; resolve a transferred case upon filing. Do not use this code to resolve a petition to terminate diversion.

Consolidated Case (CONS) - Final resolution for same respondent cases consolidated into a single file. Record the appropriate case resolution in the consolidated case and the "CONS" code in the other case file(s); use the "UNCL" (uncontested completion) code for each case with a "CONS" resolution. Do not use for consolidated cases which involve different respondents, or when cases are consolidated only for a proceeding.

10.A.c. CONTINUED PROSECUTION (CTOP)

Final resolution by placing the juvenile respondent under court supervision with specific conditions of behavior before there is any formal finding by the court. The resolution code should be entered at the time continuance is granted rather than waiting until the deferment period is completed.

Continued prosecution (deferred adjudication) for juvenile offenders (RCW 13.40.125) was repealed effective July 1, 1997. Therefore, continued prosecution should not be used for cases involving charges with violation dates after July 1, 1997. However, it remains an option for cases involving violation dates before July of 1997.

10.A.d. CHANGE OF VENUE (CHV)

Final resolution for an unadjudicated case transferred from the court of filing to another jurisdiction for all subsequent adjudication and/or proceedings, upon motion of a party or upon the court's own initiative.

10.A.e. DECLINATION OF JURISDICTION (DECL)

Final resolution for a case transferred by order to adult court for all subsequent proceedings.

10.A.f. DISMISSAL WITHOUT ADJUDICATORY HEARING (DSM)

Final resolution by the court dismissing the case before commencement of an adjudicatory hearing, including dismissal of a petition to terminate diversion.

10.A.g. GUILTY PLEA BEFORE ADJUDICATORY HEARING COMMENCEMENT (GP)

Final resolution by guilty plea to any or all charges before commencement of an adjudicatory hearing.

10.B. RESOLUTION AFTER ADJUDICATORY HEARING COMMENCEMENT

10.B.a. DEFERRED DISPOSITION (DDSP)

Final resolution of a case by placing the juvenile respondent under court supervision with specific conditions of behavior after there is a formal finding of guilt by the court. See Deferred Disposition on page 8-25.

10.B.b. DISMISSAL AFTER ADJUDICATORY HEARING COMMENCEMENT (DAT)

Final resolution by dismissal of all charges after commencement of an adjudicatory hearing, including dismissal of a petition to terminate diversion.

10.B.c. GUILTY PLEA AFTER ADJUDICATORY HEARING COMMENCEMENT (GPAT)

Final resolution by guilty plea to any or all charges after an adjudicatory hearing (i.e. trial) has commenced.

10.B.d. ACQUITTAL/NOT GUILTY (AQCT)

Final resolution by acquittal of all charges with a formal court decision of "not guilty."

10.B.e. CONVICTED - COURT DECISION AFTER ADJUDICATORY HEARING (CVCT)

Final resolution by court decision to any or all charges after adjudication (i.e. trial).

*Statistical Completion (STCL) - The statistical completion code should only be used in two instances. (1) It can be used for a previously resolved and completed pre-SCOMIS case that is added to the system to file a document or record a proceeding held. "STCL" resolutions and completions are not counted in the caseload statistics. As an alternative to the "STCL" completion code, the appropriate resolution and completion codes can be used so that the legal record more accurately reflects the case outcome (see Historical Resolution and Completion Codes in Appendix E). If this method is used, it is important to enter the correct resolution and completion dates so that these events are not (re)counted in the caseload statistics and do not distort pending caseload reports. (2) “STCL” can also be used in cases involving vacated convictions pursuant to RCW 9.94A.230. See Vacation of Conviction on page 8-26.