Who is the proscecutor in a Court of Limited Jurisdiction?

Question

In a Montana Justice Court (a Montana Court of Limited Jurisdiction https://courts.mt.gov/courts/lcourt/) when someone appears for a citation issued by a county sheriff, who is the prosecuting attorney? The county attorney? Or is there a prosecutor at all? Does the Justice of the Peace/City Judge act as a sort of prosecutor?

Answer 1

Does the Justice of the Peace/City Judge act as a sort of prosecutor?

No.

In a Montana Justice Court (a Montana Court of Limited Jurisdiction https://courts.mt.gov/courts/lcourt/) when someone appears for a citation issued by a county sheriff, who is the prosecuting attorney? The county attorney? Or is there a prosecutor at all?

The question of who will prosecute the case hinges on the statute or ordinance alleged to be violated rather than upon which law enforcement officer is issuing the citation.

I will get a citation to confirm this when I get a chance, but generally a city attorney acts as prosecutor in a city a.k.a. municipal court, a county attorney prosecutes county ordinance violations, and a prosecuting attorney prosecutes violations of state laws.

Of course, municipal ordinance violations can't be charged for conduct taking place outside the boundaries of any municipality. Also, usually, municipal police rather than county sheriffs take the lead in law enforcement within the boundaries of a municipality.

By analogy, in Colorado, when a crime is committed within the boundaries of a municipality, the law enforcement officer can mark the violation as either a municipal ordinance violation or as a state misdemeanor violation, as there are duplicate offenses for most common misdemeanors. This matters a lot in Colorado because the maximum punishment for a municipal ordinance violation is usually significantly greater than the maximum punishment for a corresponding state criminal law violation, due to recent reforms to the state criminal code. Also, in Colorado, municipal ordinance violations are tried in municipal courts (which only meet a few days a week meaning longer times incarcerated before a bail hearing can be held), rather than in the lowest level state courts (which are called county courts in Colorado).

Answer 2

A police prosecutor

australia

Summary offences in the Local Court (names vary between states) are prosecuted by a serving police officer. They may have law degrees, and the police directly recruit law students for this purpose, and they may spend their whole police career doing this.But they may also be general duties officers assigned to the task for a period of time.

Indictable offences are prosecuted by the Director of Public Prosecutions, or more likely, one of their employed lawyers, the DPP is answerable to the Attorney General of each state, territory, or the Commonwealth, as applicable.

Of course, technically, prosecutions are conducted in the name of the King.