Legal News

Prosecutors fed up with quotas at U.S. Attorney's Office

By Jason Siegel

Prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles are fed up with pressure to file small criminal cases to drive up statistics that bring in more federal funding, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Disgruntled prosecutors anonymously told the Times that U.S. Atty. Thomas O'Brien has been pressuring them to meet quotas for increased filings, or face consequences, since March 2007. Prosecutors said focus has shifted to quantity over quality, keeping prosecutors from taking on the long, complex cases that local authorities can't. They pointed to the disbanding of the office's public integrity and environmental crimes section as further evidence of the trend.

O'Brien's position is that the small cases are significant, because increased filings mean more funding from the Justice Department. They normally would be the job of rookie prosecutors, but there was a hiring freeze between Sept 2005 and June 2007. Meanwhile, the recent increase in filings has allowed the office to add 60 new prosecutors, according to the Times.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on April 18, 2008 (boomark / email).