Ok, first of all, I think many of us know that these "guidelines" elders follow vary from local area and congregation. Having said that, here are procedures from the ks91. Remember, any reference to the PO is now the COBOE.
k91 pg 97 pars 3-7
A judicial committee is not automatically formed even when a person is accused of serious sin
Some matters may be handled by the elder who hears of the wrondoing. (Gal 6:1)
Although you may feel that your counsel will suffice to restore the individual, it is advisable to inform the presiding overseer of the matter; there may be other factors involved.
The matter may have come up before, or there may have been other acts of wrongdoing concerning which he has knowledge.
Some matters may be investigated and handled by two elders assigned by the body of elders.
Some comments on the above: First of all, the PO's first and foremost responsibility is the administration of the judicial machinary that the GB has in place. Everything goes through him. In all cases, before the body of elders is informed, the PO will assign two elders of his choosing to investigate a matter, and report back to him. The PO has discretion to consider the matter handled or to bring the matter to the entire body.
Even if the entire body is called to hear the evidence, the PO can (and has) argued against the forming of JC's even in the cases of serious sin, depnding on the length of time and practice of it, or if it was one occurrence, can affect a decision to form a JC.
I know of at least 3 cases of fornication that were single occurrence, over a decade past, that were handled by the two elders assigned by the PO. In each of these cases, the elders were informed, but that was it, no judicial sanction was given.
Having said that, it really matters most who the elders are, who the PO is, etc. But there are cases where the PO can pretty much squelch a committee from forming.
The PO does have discretion to not bring up certain cases of wrongdoing to the body of elders and keep the facts to himself, if he so chooses.
This is probably a semantics issue, agreed...
