

what does this mean in a criminal case ,Charging Document: Missing Complaint?

i was arrested then bailed out. my court appointment is for june 11. i looked up my case on line. i guess the D.A has not picked up the case yet. my Q is there is a section that reads

Charging Document: Missing Complaint . what could this mean. i hope this makes some sense. thank you

3 Answers

  • Ed T
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    A charging document: A legal term for what the charges are against you by the prosecutors. A regular traffic ticket is also a charging document, so not knowing exactly what you have it is hard to say in what form your charing document has been presented to you. It also could be the complaint the prosecutor's office has filed against you. It could be for a misdemeanor or a felony, again it depends what you are being charged with.

    A mssing complaint. There should of been a complaint filed with the charging document. Each law has certain requirements that must be meant to violate that law. A gross example of that is if you committed homicide, you need to have someone dead. Depending what kind of homicide, lets say deliberate homicide then you have had to intentionally meant to kill someone. Unlike negligent homicide, where only someone died because of your negligence. Of course other things need to be met in each of these examples, but it is just to show you that each law must have certain elements of the crime that need to be met before you actually are charged with a crime. Of course it is up to the prosecutor to meet those elements of the crime in court to be convicted of that paticular charge.

    A complaint can be made either by the victim or by the prosecutor's office. They will need evidence to pursue their complaint and it can be in many forms, but usually it is a complaint from the victim, wittness statements and physical evidence.

    You should hire an attorney on any criminal charge against you, espcially if you don't understand these basic criminal principles. I know it is easier said then done because of the amount of money you may have to put up for your defense. But, after many years in the business I can tell you it would be the only way I would go for any criminal charges. You can go it alone, what they call pro se, but unlike a traffic ticket criminal charges that end with a conviction can stay on your record for a long time.

    Hope this helped somewhat.

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  • 4 years ago


    Source(s): Criminal Records Search Database :
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  • 1 decade ago

    It means that the reason you are being charged has not been recorded to that site/database.

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