Today the Bristol Herald Courier has a good article on the costs of the use of special prosecutors in Southwest Virginia to fill in for regular Commonwealth’s Attorneys in conflict cases.  While the rest of the state as a whole spent $144,000 over the last two years, the 29th and 30th Circuits spent collectively $236,000 during that two year period on private lawyers to prosecute.  The 28th Circuit spent $0 during that time period and relied on Commonwealth’s Attorneys from other parts of Virginia to handle conflict cases.  Those other Commonwealth’s Attorneys only billed for mileage and incidentals, a significant cost savings.

Interesting indeed.  Maybe there should be a state law that says when a special prosecutor is needed, another Commonwealth’s Attorney must be used unless there are special circumstances.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 10th, 2009 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Southwest Virginia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.