With a growing community, that can mean a growing need for the prosecution of crimes. And now, the Gallatin County Attorney’s Office says it needs more bodies in the courtroom.
“The caseload is crushing right now. My attorneys have about four times the cases that they should have,” said Gallatin County Attorney Audrey Cromwell.
Cromwell says that currently, ten attorneys are doing the work of thirteen attorneys. She says that once the team reaches 18 things will stabilize, but to move forward quickly on prosecuting cases they’ll need 20 attorneys.
“Every year, I’d like to request, I’m planning on requesting two attorneys plus a support staff,” Cromwell said, “so we can get to about 20 attorneys, which is where we need to be.”
Cromwell says that she has partnered with the city and has hired three attorneys that will begin, following the Bar Exam, in late August, as well as rolling out a Summer Prosecutor Program for third-year law school students.
A total of 11 cases have been moved from the County Attorney’s Office to the Prosecution Services Bureau, which is a part of the Montana Attorney General’s Office.
“We run around the state and help those smaller jurisdictions—not necessarily like a Gallatin County, but County Attorney Cromwell is in an interesting situation,” Attorney General Austin Knudsen said. “It’s tough right now in Bozeman to get a lawyer to move there with the cost of living in Gallatin County.”
Knudsen said that with the rising crime rate, the amount of cases that the Prosecution Services Bureau—which is a team of ten—takes on has grown as well.
“They are overworked; I am concerned,” Knudsen said. “I’d really like to hire and need to hire a couple more dedicated criminal felony prosecutors.”
Knudsen said that during the legislative session, the House of Representatives took a lot of funding out and denied the requests for additional attorneys.
“We have the state budget over at the senate; hopefully we can get that funding built back in and get it back over to the house and get that concurred in,” Knudsen said.
The 11 cases that has been transferred to the Prosecution Services Bureau will still be tried in Gallatin County.
