Many defendants or victims in domestic violence cases often have questions about the legal process once a case has begun. One common question is if the Attorney General has any role in domestic violence cases.
In Colorado the Attorney General’s office is not involved in domestic violence cases. Each county is part of a judicial district and each judicial district has its own elected District Attorney who is responsible for trying domestic violence cases. In some jurisdictions municipalities also have a City Attorney whose office may try domestic violence cases. While the Colorado Attorney General is considered the state’s top law enforcement official their office pursues a different type of case. No matter who is prosecuting the case a criminal defense lawyer while be able to help in defending all domestic violence cases.
For the most part the Attorney General pursues only criminal cases involving major fraud. This includes things like Medicare fraud, insurance fraud, charitable fraud, or fraud involving stocks and bonds. Most violent and property crimes such as assault, destruction of property, theft, and murder which all may be acts of domestic violence do not involve the Attorney General.
If you search “Attorney General domestic violence” on their own website you can get an idea for what type of involvement the Attorney General does have with domestic violence. Most of their work involves training law enforcement and prosecutors in how best to deal with these types of cases. These training courses help educate law enforcement throughout the state and attempt to help prosecutors deal with the issue of domestic violence uniformly and in accordance with the best practices available.
