Rules of Court, Volume III: Criminal Procedure

It begins with the constitutional layer, because in criminal procedure that layer is not background — it is the rule. The presumption of innocence, the right to counsel and to remain silent, confrontation, compulsory process, speedy trial and double jeopardy are set out first, then the lifecycle of a case from investigation to execution.

Part two covers how a prosecution starts: the institution of the action, jurisdiction and venue, the complaint and the information with its problems of designation, duplicity and amendment, preliminary investigation, inquest, and a chapter on probable cause alone — distinguishing the prosecutor's determination from the judge's, which students routinely merge.

Part three is arrest, search and seizure across seven chapters. The warrant and the judicial determination behind it; warrantless arrest in flagrante, in hot pursuit, and of an escapee; search warrants and the one-specific-offense rule; the warrantless searches — incidental to arrest, of moving vehicles, by consent, in plain view, stop and frisk, checkpoints and buy-bust operations; and the exclusionary rule with the fruit of the poisonous tree.

Part four takes bail as a matter of right and as a matter of discretion, arraignment, plea and plea bargaining, the motion to quash, and the other preliminary motions including provisional dismissal and the prejudicial question. Part five runs the trial: pretrial, the order of trial, the rights of the accused during it, demurrer to evidence with and without leave, judgment, and promulgation including promulgation in absentia.

Part six is what comes after — new trial and reconsideration, appeal and who may take it, finality and double jeopardy, speedy trial distinguished from speedy disposition, and the provisional remedies. Part seven covers the special regimes that now govern much of practice: cybercrime warrants, juvenile justice and diversion, the dangerous drugs procedures and chain of custody, the anti-terrorism rules, and body-worn cameras.

The eighth part is practice and integration — three separate roadmaps, a framework for choosing the correct procedural remedy, the traps in criminal procedure and in its constitutional dimension, comprehensive problems, and a quick reference of the timelines and matrices.

Every chapter is built the same way, in sixteen sections: the governing rule, the same rule in plain language, why it matters, the elements as a checklist, the procedure step by step, the exceptions, a Distinguish box for the concepts commonly confused, the controlling doctrines, a short example, a practice point, the Bar angle, the mistakes students actually make, a one-page Quick Recall, then a law-school problem, a Bar-style problem, and a model answer.