By Liz Ness
Gongwer News Service
Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office has a long-standing partnership with small, local county prosecutor offices, assisting in tasks that may overwhelm locations that have perpetual staffing issues.
Smaller county prosecutor offices are also facing increasing hiring shortages. In some instances, when the county prosecutor has left, the Department of Attorney General has stepped in to handle all duties.
Now, The Department of Attorney General is focusing on their continuing partnership with all counties in the state with fewer than 75,000 residents, assisting with their appellate processes.
That includes 56 of the 83 counties in Michigan.
In a House Judiciary Committee in April, Nessel addressed this process, saying although it is not necessary in her role, it is important work because those offices were overwhelmed.
“Sometimes, they get appointed to a judicial position. Sometimes, I think they’re just overwhelmed, because they have a hard time hiring staff,” Nessel said in that committee. “It’s hard to compete with the private sector, and fewer and fewer people want to be prosecutors, in part, I think, because it requires you to actually be in court, sometimes five days a week.”
This assistance comes in the face of a state and nationwide shortage of prosecutors in the public sector.
There are currently 49 openings across all counties, mostly assistant attorney positions, according to the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan website. The latest openings date back to April 2024.
These vacancies also lead to Nessel’s overall absorption of duties for counties like Lake County, currently facing a vacancy in their head seat.
The department has also aided Houghton, Luce and Ontonagon counties due to similar vacancies.
In Houghton County, Prosecutor Dan Hemer took over in November 2023 after a resignation in September of that year. In February 2024, the department added two new assistant prosecutors.
Helmer, who took the position after Nessel’s fulfillment of duties as the county prosecutor, said although he was grateful that she was able to step in, the partnership is not ideal because they only dealt with emergency matters. Everything else was put aside.
“There was a stack of files, probably a foot tall and five feet wide, waiting to be reviewed,” Helmer said. “I spent a month here in Houghton after I moved up from Grand Rapids just reviewing cases that needed to be reviewed before I even started going to court, so that was a challenge.”
He said the office stopped reviewing cases when they knew a new prosecutor was going to arrive, creating “a huge backlog.”
Helmer’s office is also one of the offices that benefits from the appellate process Nessel has in place. He said the department taking up cases, which are largely bigger criminal cases, is very helpful when they have appeals after someone goes to trial and loses. However, his office must handle any appeals on pending cases that have not been tried yet.
It would be rare for Nessel’s office to step in, generally, he said.
Looking at the prosecutor shortage, Helmer said the problem was clear to him as he stepped into his position and tried to attract talent to his office: the salary.
He said the money is not enough to convince someone to move to Houghton unless they already live there, and the only solution is to work with the county board of commissioners. He said thankfully, he was able to work with his board to get an increase in salary, but every county is different.
In Clare County in 2023, the prosecutor’s office sued its board of commissioners after repeated requests for increased attorney staffing. As reported in the Clare County Cleaver, the board said they would support their request if they could find a way to fund it.
Then-prosecutor Michelle Ambrozaitis found a way, negotiating reimbursement from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to try their cases from $40,000 to $80,000. The board rejected this idea, which led to the lawsuit. The case was dismissed in December 2024.
“I was very thankful that my board of commissioners was receptive, and basically came to me and said, if you think an increase in funding would help you attract people, just tell us what you want and what you want pay, and we will do it, and then they did,” Helmer said. “Not everybody has that.”
Filling in the staff is extremely important, according to Helmer. He said his office has several community duties, and that it all falls to the wayside when reading files all week.
J. Dee Brooks, Midland County prosecutor and president of the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan, said the overall shortage is compounding itself because the offices are short-staffed, which causes more burnout on the staff they do have, and then want to find places with smaller caseloads that pay more money, pulling them away from the public sector.
Current politics is also pushing people away from the job, Brooks said. He said an uptick in people attacking prosecutors and courts in general is a problem.
Brooks said Nessel’s partnership with understaffed counties works well, but it is not enough to fill the gap long term because the department is only able to address “bare bones” issues.
“Where you’ve got an office that temporarily has no prosecutors, or vastly under serviced and understaffed, they can step in and help out on a temporary basis, but that’s not a long-term solution,” Brooks said. “You really need a local and want a local attorney to be handling those cases, and I’m sure the AG has plenty of their own caseload and things that they need to do.”
Knowing the needs and issues of the community is paramount, so there needs to be a local attorney to evaluate what cases are most important to the population, Brooks said. The prosecutor’s office also needs relationships with police departments, protective services, shelter agencies and more to have a local ecosystem that works together.
Midland County is not part of the population that gets help with the appellate process.
Brooks said his office is well-staffed and can keep up with their docket well, but it would be helpful if Nessel’s appellate assistance spread to larger countries like his own.
On the other hand, Brooks said it may not help the biggest counties in the state that have their own appellate divisions, but it could be useful in offices that do not have dedicated staff for appeals.
Evaluating solutions to the shortage, Brooks said more money from the state has been discussed, along with getting resources for a new system to connect all court systems for the state and providing additional funding to the counties with the highest violent crime rate.
“That’s not enough, so we’ve gotten some assistance to the problem, but we haven’t got enough relief yet to really help all the counties address the problem,” he said.
However, county boards determine funding to the prosecutor’s office.
Helmer is calling for a change in structuring for funding from the state. Although Michigan has allocated more funds to public defense across the state with the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission , he would like to see a similar structure for prosecutors.
He said he would be wary of taking away local control, but there should be a way to mirror the defendant’s funding. Rep. Tom Kunse (R-Clare) questioned Helmer’s proposed solutions. “Government should be small, transparent and local, up to the county,” Kunse said. “I have certainly not seen anything where we need to send money from the state level to take care of this.”
One solution Kunse does think can help is providing incentives for hometown talent to come back and practice in their home county after college, similar to the programs run by multiple police departments to attract talent.
Gongwer News Service
Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office has a long-standing partnership with small, local county prosecutor offices, assisting in tasks that may overwhelm locations that have perpetual staffing issues.
Smaller county prosecutor offices are also facing increasing hiring shortages. In some instances, when the county prosecutor has left, the Department of Attorney General has stepped in to handle all duties.
Now, The Department of Attorney General is focusing on their continuing partnership with all counties in the state with fewer than 75,000 residents, assisting with their appellate processes.
That includes 56 of the 83 counties in Michigan.
In a House Judiciary Committee in April, Nessel addressed this process, saying although it is not necessary in her role, it is important work because those offices were overwhelmed.
“Sometimes, they get appointed to a judicial position. Sometimes, I think they’re just overwhelmed, because they have a hard time hiring staff,” Nessel said in that committee. “It’s hard to compete with the private sector, and fewer and fewer people want to be prosecutors, in part, I think, because it requires you to actually be in court, sometimes five days a week.”
This assistance comes in the face of a state and nationwide shortage of prosecutors in the public sector.
There are currently 49 openings across all counties, mostly assistant attorney positions, according to the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan website. The latest openings date back to April 2024.
These vacancies also lead to Nessel’s overall absorption of duties for counties like Lake County, currently facing a vacancy in their head seat.
The department has also aided Houghton, Luce and Ontonagon counties due to similar vacancies.
In Houghton County, Prosecutor Dan Hemer took over in November 2023 after a resignation in September of that year. In February 2024, the department added two new assistant prosecutors.
Helmer, who took the position after Nessel’s fulfillment of duties as the county prosecutor, said although he was grateful that she was able to step in, the partnership is not ideal because they only dealt with emergency matters. Everything else was put aside.
“There was a stack of files, probably a foot tall and five feet wide, waiting to be reviewed,” Helmer said. “I spent a month here in Houghton after I moved up from Grand Rapids just reviewing cases that needed to be reviewed before I even started going to court, so that was a challenge.”
He said the office stopped reviewing cases when they knew a new prosecutor was going to arrive, creating “a huge backlog.”
Helmer’s office is also one of the offices that benefits from the appellate process Nessel has in place. He said the department taking up cases, which are largely bigger criminal cases, is very helpful when they have appeals after someone goes to trial and loses. However, his office must handle any appeals on pending cases that have not been tried yet.
It would be rare for Nessel’s office to step in, generally, he said.
Looking at the prosecutor shortage, Helmer said the problem was clear to him as he stepped into his position and tried to attract talent to his office: the salary.
He said the money is not enough to convince someone to move to Houghton unless they already live there, and the only solution is to work with the county board of commissioners. He said thankfully, he was able to work with his board to get an increase in salary, but every county is different.
In Clare County in 2023, the prosecutor’s office sued its board of commissioners after repeated requests for increased attorney staffing. As reported in the Clare County Cleaver, the board said they would support their request if they could find a way to fund it.
Then-prosecutor Michelle Ambrozaitis found a way, negotiating reimbursement from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to try their cases from $40,000 to $80,000. The board rejected this idea, which led to the lawsuit. The case was dismissed in December 2024.
“I was very thankful that my board of commissioners was receptive, and basically came to me and said, if you think an increase in funding would help you attract people, just tell us what you want and what you want pay, and we will do it, and then they did,” Helmer said. “Not everybody has that.”
Filling in the staff is extremely important, according to Helmer. He said his office has several community duties, and that it all falls to the wayside when reading files all week.
J. Dee Brooks, Midland County prosecutor and president of the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan, said the overall shortage is compounding itself because the offices are short-staffed, which causes more burnout on the staff they do have, and then want to find places with smaller caseloads that pay more money, pulling them away from the public sector.
Current politics is also pushing people away from the job, Brooks said. He said an uptick in people attacking prosecutors and courts in general is a problem.
Brooks said Nessel’s partnership with understaffed counties works well, but it is not enough to fill the gap long term because the department is only able to address “bare bones” issues.
“Where you’ve got an office that temporarily has no prosecutors, or vastly under serviced and understaffed, they can step in and help out on a temporary basis, but that’s not a long-term solution,” Brooks said. “You really need a local and want a local attorney to be handling those cases, and I’m sure the AG has plenty of their own caseload and things that they need to do.”
Knowing the needs and issues of the community is paramount, so there needs to be a local attorney to evaluate what cases are most important to the population, Brooks said. The prosecutor’s office also needs relationships with police departments, protective services, shelter agencies and more to have a local ecosystem that works together.
Midland County is not part of the population that gets help with the appellate process.
Brooks said his office is well-staffed and can keep up with their docket well, but it would be helpful if Nessel’s appellate assistance spread to larger countries like his own.
On the other hand, Brooks said it may not help the biggest counties in the state that have their own appellate divisions, but it could be useful in offices that do not have dedicated staff for appeals.
Evaluating solutions to the shortage, Brooks said more money from the state has been discussed, along with getting resources for a new system to connect all court systems for the state and providing additional funding to the counties with the highest violent crime rate.
“That’s not enough, so we’ve gotten some assistance to the problem, but we haven’t got enough relief yet to really help all the counties address the problem,” he said.
However, county boards determine funding to the prosecutor’s office.
Helmer is calling for a change in structuring for funding from the state. Although Michigan has allocated more funds to public defense across the state with the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission , he would like to see a similar structure for prosecutors.
He said he would be wary of taking away local control, but there should be a way to mirror the defendant’s funding. Rep. Tom Kunse (R-Clare) questioned Helmer’s proposed solutions. “Government should be small, transparent and local, up to the county,” Kunse said. “I have certainly not seen anything where we need to send money from the state level to take care of this.”
One solution Kunse does think can help is providing incentives for hometown talent to come back and practice in their home county after college, similar to the programs run by multiple police departments to attract talent.
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