Each lawyer in the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office handles hundreds of cases each year, hindering the agency’s ability to prosecute cases, its top official says. The office, headed by State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks, handles more than 40,000 cases a year, the second highest in the state, according to spokeswoman Nancy Lineman.
Each of the 75 attorneys in the office handles an average of 533 cases each year, or two cases every work day. At some point, the heavy workload becomes unconscionable, Alsobrooks said.
“It just reaches a point where we are concerned that at some point, something always falls through the cracks,” she said.
Her lawyers handle between 240 to 400 cases a week just in District Court, ranging from misdemeanors to traffic violations. The amount of research and preparation that goes into some cases is staggering — a recent homicide case, handled by one of the agency’s six homicide lawyers, had more than 8,000 pages of legal documents.
At some point, it becomes an issue of public safety if attorneys aren’t able to effectively prosecute criminal cases, Alsobrooks said.
The Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office is the only office in the state that handles more cases a year, about 75,000, according to officials. But with about 210 lawyers on staff, each handles an average of 357 cases a year.
The U.S. Attorney’s office in the District of Columbia, which serves as a prosecutor for both local and federal cases in the city, handles roughly 20,000 cases every year, but has more than 350 lawyers who handle an average of 57 cases each.
It’s tough to put a national standard on the number of cases a prosecutor can reasonably handle, since cases require varying amounts of work, according to a 2002 study by the American Prosecutors Research Institute.
Alsobrooks said she’s seen enough to make properly staffing her agency a top priority heading into next year’s budget season, and she’s prepared to ask County Executive Rushern Baker and the County Council to increase funding for her office. The office has a budget of $13 million this year.
