# County Prosecutor vs. District Attorney **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 12, 2004, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-prosecutor-vs-district-attorney/233937 "2004-03-12T17:56:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-prosecutor-vs-district-attorney/233937/1 "2004-03-12T17:56:48Z")
Which states have county prosecutors as the principal bringers of criminal charges? Which states use district attorneys? Where are they elected and where are they appointed? What is the name of the basic criminal court where ordinary felonies are prosecuted Ohio has elected county prosecutors (some full-time, some part-time) who bring most criminal charges in the county court of common pleas. What about the others? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-prosecutor-vs-district-attorney/233937/2 "2004-03-12T18:33:45Z")
Wisconsin has district attorneys. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-prosecutor-vs-district-attorney/233937/3 "2004-03-12T21:42:49Z")
Michigan and Hawaii all have county prosecutors. Nevada, District Attorneys. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-prosecutor-vs-district-attorney/233937/4 "2004-03-12T21:44:42Z")
> [@Gfactor](#): > > Michigan and Hawaii all have county prosecutors. Nevada, District Attorneys. Remove all; insert both. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-prosecutor-vs-district-attorney/233937/5 "2004-03-12T21:56:40Z")
Here’s a none-of-the-above: Virginia has Commonwealth’s Attorneys. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-prosecutor-vs-district-attorney/233937/6 "2004-03-13T00:33:10Z")
That’s because Virginia’s _special_. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/county-prosecutor-vs-district-attorney/233937/7 "2004-03-13T01:01:51Z")
Commonwealth of PR: We have General Prosecutor, Special Prosecutor, Prosecutor and Auxiliary Prosecutors. “District” Prosecutor here means just the boss Prosecutor at each of 13 Superior Court seats (both our Judiciary and our Executive-branch Justice department are fully centralized/unified, we have no municipal or county entities. The municipal “court” is merely a municipal _section_ of the General Court of Justice.) Auxiliaries are the rookies who are handed over the scutwork and have to get up at 3 am to go look at some guy found hanged in his basement. The General Prosecutor sits in a fancy office in San Juan and comes out ocassionally for Photo-Ops. SPs handle political officials. Family-Law and Minors issues that are not actually criminal are handled by equivalent officials who are designated as “solicitors” rather than prosecutors.