CHAPTER 14
Documenting and Presenting the Case
Introduction
This chapter will explain how to pull everything together into a coherent report and then, using the report, how to prepare a concise flexible filing system that you can use and incorporate into the analytical aids previously discussed.
Creating a System
In previous chapters, we introduced the reader to some powerful organization and analysis tools. Their utility, however, is limited by the investigator's ability to quickly and accurately retrieve the underlying facts and data on which they are based. Without the ability to put your hands on the evidence supporting the conclusion, or to identify the witness who will testify for a particular fact, the models are nothing more than elaborate flowcharts. To be effective, they must be related directly to the process of prosecution. The most efficient model in the world will be useless to us if we have to wade through several stacks of paper on our desk in order to find the specific document necessary to prove a particular proposition. We must have ease of retrieval.
To achieve this ease of retrieval, we must integrate our organizational system with our analysis tools. The organizational system must fulfill some basic requirements. First, the system must have a direct correlation between the underlying data and the models. In other words, we must be able to directly reference each item in our models from our system, and vice versa. Second, the system must be easy to implement. ...
