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Hello,

There are a lot of postings here about Philly DA ADA application process regarding the Municipal Court positions. Does anyone know about their Appeals division? Is the interview process the same, but you just get assigned to that division instead? Or is it a completely separate hiring/interview process?

Also, how is a city DA appellate section seen generally in terms of prestige etc. ? I'm not very familiar with the DA world.

Does DA refer to the state prosecutor or the city prosecutor? Wiki says state. But I thought state prosecutors were assistant attorney generals??

Anonymous User wrote:Does DA refer to the state prosecutor or the city prosecutor? Wiki says state. But I thought state prosecutors were assistant attorney generals??

DA is state, divided up by county. Major cities will also have city prosecutors, but they (I think) handle stuff charged by municipal statute rather than by state statute, so usually more minor cases. State attorney generals offices often do handle state criminal stuff, but it depends on the kind of case - I think usually stuff that is more state wide/not limited to one county jurisdiction (so organized crime, money laundering, consumer protection, election fraud rather than DUIs, assaults, robberies etc). Also in some states the AG's office handles all the state criminal appeals, but I don't know how widespread that is.

State AGs represent the state on lots of other non-criminal stuff, too - negotiating contracts, regulating utilities, etc etc.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Does DA refer to the state prosecutor or the city prosecutor? Wiki says state. But I thought state prosecutors were assistant attorney generals??

DA is state, divided up by county. Major cities will also have city prosecutors, but they (I think) handle stuff charged by municipal statute rather than by state statute, so usually more minor cases. State attorney generals offices often do handle state criminal stuff, but it depends on the kind of case - I think usually stuff that is more state wide/not limited to one county jurisdiction (so organized crime, money laundering, consumer protection, election fraud rather than DUIs, assaults, robberies etc). Also in some states the AG's office handles all the state criminal appeals, but I don't know how widespread that is.

State AGs represent the state on lots of other non-criminal stuff, too - negotiating contracts, regulating utilities, etc etc.

OP here

So is philly DA (the website is phila.gov) the state or city prosecutor? Whichever it is, where is the website for the other?

Oh, I forgot that Philadelphia is its own county (the city is the county), so in this case it is just the Philadelphia DA.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:Oh, I forgot that Philadelphia is its own county (the city is the county), so in this case it is just the Philadelphia DA.

Thanks for the response. So what about the state DA? Where is their website? I was not able to find it anywhere.

There isn't a single state DA. Each county has its own DA. State wide is the AG's office, which googling Pennsylvania Attorney General will get you.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:There isn't a single state DA. Each county has its own DA. State wide is the AG's office, which googling Pennsylvania Attorney General will get you.

Oh that's what I thought! But in your first response on this thread you said "DA is state" so that seemed otherwise

Okay wait here's what I'm understanding: the state has an AG, and also DAs divided up by county. But those DAs are also part of the state government (just like the AG) but they just have a more limited jurisdiction(concentrated in issues in that specific location). So AGs and DAs are all part of the state government, all prosecutors for the state, with differing jurisdictions? Is this correct?

I originally thought it was a totally diff government. Like AGs were state government and DAs were city township/county government

Anonymous User wrote:

A. Nony Mouse wrote:There isn't a single state DA. Each county has its own DA. State wide is the AG's office, which googling Pennsylvania Attorney General will get you.

Oh that's what I thought! But in your first response on this thread you said "DA is state" so that seemed otherwise

Okay wait here's what I'm understanding: the state has an AG, and also DAs divided up by county. But those DAs are also part of the state government (just like the AG) but they just have a more limited jurisdiction(concentrated in issues in that specific location). So AGs and DAs are all part of the state government, all prosecutors for the state, with differing jurisdictions? Is this correct?

I originally thought it was a totally diff government. Like AGs were state government and DAs were city township/county government

No. DAs are county employees in Pennsylvania so everything (pay, structure, etc) varies by county. You represent the Commonwealth in court but you are a county employee. There are no city-DAs in Pennsylvania.

Yeah, when I said that "DA is state" I meant they represent the state rather than the city, not that they were organized at the state level. And AAGs are state employees. AG's offices do handle criminal stuff but also a ton of other stuff.