- The Eaton County Prosecuting Office is experiencing a shortage of lawyers due to the workload.
- As funding shortfalls in Eaton County increase, prosecuting attorney Doug Lloyd says cuts could affect the prosecuting of cases.
- Watch video above to see how the shortage could affect the prosecution on criminals.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
“We’re down, it's tough to keep people here in Eaton County.” Said Doug Lloyd, Eaton County Prosecuting Attorney.
Prosecutor Doug Lloyd says the shortage has put him in a tight situation.
“For me, I’m constantly running a position or two short at both the attorney and the legal assistant level.” Said, Lloyd
Watch Video: Importance of legal assistant
Lloyd says the implementation of more advanced technology in local police departments has caused changes to his office's workflow.
"You're going to have a three-page police report, almost every store has more sophisticated cameras than when I started 25 years ago, and let's say three officers show up there and spend an hour, I now have three hours of body cam an actual video from the store as well as the reports that come with them. Something that may have taken me 30 minutes to review 25 years ago now will take me almost four hours. " Said Lloyd.
More evidence takes more time to review and develop cases, which then leads to a log jam of cases on judges' desks.
“Do we have a backlog problem we sure do, have we had one, we do, and the reason why is because of that same problem about why our expenditures are more its technology.” Said Lloyd.
This additional workload has created a greater need for lawyers in the prosecutor's office.
“That’s why it's basically been determined through studies that we’ve done, I’m 6 to 7 attorneys short” Said Lloyd.
And while time spent on cases has increased, the amount of cases hasn’t.
"I’m bringing in about 7,000 cases a year, but if I'm down an attorney or down two attorneys I'm asking those other attorneys to pick up that work, there's no additional pay, there’s a big thank you, an atta boy, that's about all I can offer.” Said Lloyd.
Lloyd says that's not cutting it. He says his prosecutors are not compensated as well as their counterparts in surrounding counties, and he's seeing lawyers looking for elsewhere for higher pay.
“We can look at other counties, Livingston County, Calhoun County, Jackson County, even Clinton County are paying more money than Eaton County. Ingham county, while prosecutor Dwayne over there is down 5 attorneys at this moment they still pay more than Eaton county does.”
Lloyd says if the problem continues, he’ll have to determine which case to pursue, potentially leaving some criminal cases unprosecuted.
Watch Video: Prosecutor Lloyd in Support of Tax Limitation Proposal, Says It Could be a Solution.
This is part of continuing coverage on the Eaton County tax limitation proposal
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