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Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs cites heavy caseloads, seeks sealing law change and staffing increases
Summary
A department official told the House Judiciary Committee that county prosecutors and victim advocates are carrying high caseloads and outlined five legislative priorities: sealing records, recidivism definition, firearms possession limits for certain people, DUI statutory cleanup and pausing phase 2 of raise-the-age.
An official from the Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs told the House Judiciary Committee on Jan. 10 that the department is staffing nearly all criminal and juvenile cases statewide but faces heavy workloads and wants new staff and statutory changes to reduce backlog and improve data.
The official said the department’s recent data extraction shows about 23,000 pending cases statewide (down from about 26,000 last year), roughly 72 attorneys including the 14 elected state’s attorneys, and about 300–400 cases per attorney. Victim advocates handle roughly 600 cases per advocate, the official said, and the department is staffing about 96 pending homicide matters.
“We’re roughly staffing about 99% of the criminal cases in our court system and the juvenile court cases in our system,” the…
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