Case Management
Case Management
Case management is the administrative spine of an investigation: it governs how a case is opened, documented, prioritized, and closed. Candidates must understand the case file as a controlled record, the distinction between an incident, a complaint, and a formal case, and the role of a case management system (whether paper or electronic) in preserving accountability.
Key concepts to master include intake and triage (deciding whether a matter merits investigation), case numbering and indexing, assignment of ownership, status tracking, and disposition categories (founded, unfounded, cleared, suspended). Understand chain-of-custody linkage, confidentiality controls, retention schedules, and the separation between investigative records and privileged or HR records. Know who authorizes closure and how supervisory review fits in.
Traps in exam questions cluster around three areas. First, conflating case closure with evidence destruction-closure ends active work but does not automatically authorize disposal. Second, assuming the investigator alone decides disposition; typically a supervisor or review body approves. Third, confusing a preliminary inquiry with a full investigation-many questions hinge on whether a matter was properly triaged before resources were committed.
Rule of thumb: every case action should be traceable to a person, a time, and a reason. If a question describes an action with no documented owner or rationale, that is usually the wrong answer.
Worked example: An employee reports a missing laptop. The investigator opens a case, assigns it, and later closes it as unfounded when the laptop is found misplaced. A question asks whether the file may now be purged. Correct reasoning: closure is a disposition, not a retention decision-the retention schedule governs disposal, so the file is retained per policy.