Office of Professional Responsibility
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The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is part of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). The OPR is the component of The DOJ responsible for investigating attorney employees of the DOJ who have been accused of misconduct or criminal activity with respect to their professional functions as DOJ attorneys. The OPR promulgates independent standards regarding ethical and criminal conduct applicable to DOJ attorney employees while the DOJ's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has jurisdiction of all non attorney DOJ employees. Since 1998 the OPR has been headed by H. Marshall Jarrett.
OPR receives reports of allegations of misconduct made against Department of Justice attorneys from many sources. Nearly half of all such allegations are reported to OPR either by the attorney involved or by other Department sources.[1] The remaining complaints received by OPR come from a variety of sources, including private attorneys, defendants and civil litigants, other federal agencies, state or local government officials, judicial and congressional referrals, and media reports. Judicial findings of misconduct are given expedited attention by OPR.
Upon receipt, OPR reviews each allegation and determines whether further investigation is warranted. The determination whether to open an investigation in a specific case is a matter of investigative judgment. Many factors are weighed, including the nature of the allegation, its apparent credibility, its specificity, its susceptibility to verification, and the source of the allegation. A decision to open a matter does not give rise to a presumption of misconduct nor does it shift the burden of proof to the person being investigated. OPR's investigations involve a wide range of allegations, and the investigative methods used vary accordingly.
In many cases, OPR notifies the attorney against whom the allegation has been made and requests a written response. OPR may also conduct on-site investigations. Based on the results of the investigation, OPR prepares a report to the component head concerned with a copy to the Office of the Deputy Attorney General setting forth its findings and conclusions, and advises the complainant and the attorney involved of the conclusion reached.
[edit] References
1 http://www.usdoj.gov/opr/proc-hdl.htm
