WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

• Once the intake officer’s report is drafted, it goes to a reference panel.

• The reference panel includes the intake officer, the bishop, and a member of the disciplinary committee.

• The reference panel is responsible for deciding what to do next:

• Take no action other than to provide a pastoral response

• Refer the matter for investigation

• Refer the matter for negotiation of an accord between the bishop and the respondent aka the Bad Guy (or Lady)

• Refer the matter to a conference panel, where there is a conversation about ways to resolve your concerns

• Refer the matter to a hearing panel. This is the big dog — lawyers, pleadings, discovery, the whole nine yards. Things typically don’t go to hearing panel unless the respondent is a real turd. Why? Because hearing panels are public — it’s all out in the open! And they are expensive