Hi,

Our office has several interns who have passed the Texas bar but continue to intern with our office while looking for a job. We would like to give them the opportunity to try cases while they are here. Is it possible to appoint a licensed intern as a special prosecutor to try cases? If so, what paperwork would be involved? Would we have to give them an oath for each case they try? And lastly, if we appointed an intern as a special prosecutor, would he/she be entitled to compensation under Art. 2.07(c)?

Thanks so much for any insight you may have.

Any licensed attorney can be appointed as a special prosecutor to handle a case under the direction of the elected prosecutor. See Govt Code Secs. 41.102-.103. The attorney must be sworn into office for each individual case, but their compensation (or lack of) is entirely up to your office and can be pro bono.

This is NOT an attorney pro tem situation under CCP Art. 2.07. For more on the differences between a special prosecutor and an attorney pro tem, read the annotations after CCP Art. 2.07 in TDCAA's Criminal Laws of Texas (p.174 in the Big Purple Book).

p.s.-congratulations on your first user forum post!

Hi Shannon,

Thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction. We haven't had an occasion to use special prosecutors since I have been here so I had no idea where to look when I was asked to look into it.

I was also really glad to stumble upon the User Forum. I went to Baby Prosecutor's school not too long ago and I remembered talk of research resources. There is such a wealth of info here. This will definitely not be my last post!

Thanks again,

Libby

One last question. After reading a couple cases on special prosecutors I am still confused about the oath. Under Government Code 45.002, the oath of an asst county attorney must be written and filed with the clerk's office. If we swear an intern in as a special prosecutor for the county attorney's office, would the oath have to be in writting and filed with the clerk's office? And they would get the same oath as any other Asst?

Yes, the oath must be in writing; yes, the oath is the same as that for other assistants; and yes, it should probably be filed with the county clerk. Failure to abide by that last point is not fatal, but to avoid needless appellate fights, you could probably keep the oath somewhere in your office and file a copy of it with the appointment motion & order in each case, which would be in the clerk's office. Just a thought.

I've emailed you a sample motion, order, and oath that you can edit/convert to your own use.