When a criminal case is sent to the procuratorate, there are usually two situations:
1. After the first stage of investigation, if the public security organ considers it necessary to take arrest measures against the suspect, it shall request the procuratorate to approve the arrest. At this time, the case goes to the procuratorate, and the investigation and supervision department of the procuratorate generally makes a decision on whether to approve the arrest within 7 days;
2. The public security organ completes all investigation activities and transfers the case to the procuratorate, and the public prosecution department of the procuratorate examines and prosecutes. Next is the stage of review and prosecution.
So, what role can lawyers play in these two situations?
Second, the first case-review and arrest stage, the role of lawyers mainly has two:
1. Meet with the criminal suspect, fully understand the details of the case through the meeting, provide targeted legal training to the parties, inform them of their litigation rights, and make them strive for favorable conditions for themselves, so as to avoid taking unnecessary responsibilities due to arbitrary retraction. For example, in an online fraud case, when asked by the public security organ "Did you participate in the xx planning meeting", the criminal suspect will generally only answer "participated". In fact, his so-called participation is just taking minutes of the meeting, and he has no chance to speak at all, let alone the power to make the final decision. At this time, I will persuade him to confess completely, saying that although he attended the meeting, it didn't have much effect, paving the way for him to win over his accomplices in the future.
2. Put forward legal suggestions to the procuratorate around the facts and laws of the case to stop the arrest. In the investigation stage, lawyers can't see the case file and don't fully understand the evidence of the case. At this time, experienced lawyers can generally rely on their own experience in handling cases to predict the direction of the case, and the personnel of the investigation and supervision department of the procuratorate also have this ability. Therefore, after the meeting, lawyers can usually communicate smoothly with prosecutors on the facts and legal issues of the case. At this time, lawyers try their best to win the procuratorate's disapproval of the arrest for the parties, which is better than the family members of the parties themselves asking the procuratorate to change the compulsory measures of bail pending trial.
Third, the second situation-the review and prosecution stage, the role of lawyers in addition to the above two, there is a more important role-starting from the evidence to defend, for the parties to fight for innocence, misdemeanor or light sentence results. In the stage of examination and prosecution, the law gives lawyers the right to read papers (others don't), that is, lawyers can go to the procuratorate to check all the materials related to the case at this time. After the lawyers read the papers, professional lawyers can make a general judgment on whether the parties are guilty, whether they should be convicted by the public security organs, and whether there is a lighter or mitigated punishment. After making a preliminary judgment, if the evidence that can prove the guilt of the parties is flawed, the lawyer can see it and put forward cross-examination opinions to the case-handling organ. For the evidence that can prove that the parties are lighter or innocent, lawyers comprehensively sort it out and integrate it into legal opinions or defenses to strive for the due interests of the parties.
Legal basis:
Article 162 of the Criminal Procedure Law of People's Republic of China (PRC): When investigating a closed case, the public security organ shall ensure that the facts of the crime are clear and the evidence is true and sufficient, and write a prosecution opinion, which shall be transferred to the people's procuratorate at the same level for examination and decision together with the case file and evidence; At the same time, inform the criminal suspect and his defense lawyer about the transfer of the case.