Could a municipal judge also serve as a state’s attorney in another county or an assistant state’s attorney in the same county?

Short answer The committee found no ethical problem with judging in one county while serving as state’s attorney in another. It found no categorical bar to the same-county assistant role, but said the lawyer could not switch roles in the same or a related case.

Bar

SBAND

Issued

June 2, 1988

Source

View Original PDF

Apply this to your situation

This page answers the general question as of 1988. Ask about yours and see what the current North Dakota Rules of Professional Conduct say for your facts, with citations.

How much weight this carries: Under North Dakota Rule for Lawyer Discipline 1.2(B), a lawyer who acts in good faith and in reasonable reliance on a written opinion of the association's ethics committee is not subject to sanction for the conduct the opinion addresses. Source.

About this page: The plain-English summary, reader guidance, and Q&A below were written by Ezel based on the official ethics opinion. The original opinion (linked on this page as a PDF) is the authoritative source for any reliance.

View original ethics opinion (PDF)

Plain-English summary

The lawyer asked about serving as municipal judge in one county while acting as state’s attorney in another. The committee saw no ethical problem with that pairing.

The lawyer also asked about being a municipal judge and assistant state’s attorney in the same county. The committee said there was no categorical ethical prohibition but was concerned about conflicts from the dual role. Once the lawyer acted as judge or prosecutor in a case, the committee said the lawyer was precluded from acting in the other role in that case or a related one. It also advised limiting access to files in one role that could influence conduct or knowledge in the other.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1988, before North Dakota's 2006 revisions to its Rules of Professional Conduct. The later North Dakota Opinion 06-05 states: “On August 1, 2006, material changes to N.D.R. Prof. Conduct 1.10(a) will take effect.” Subsequent rule amendments or later opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current guidance. Verify against current rules before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or requirement.

Common questions

Q: Could a municipal judge also be a state’s attorney in another county?

A: Yes, on the stated facts the committee saw no ethical problem.

Q: Could the same person switch between judge and prosecutor in the same case?

A: No. The committee said acting in either role in a case precluded acting in the other role in that case or any related case.

Background and rules framework

The committee did not cite a numbered rule in its response. Its analysis focused on conflicts of interest that could arise when one lawyer held both judicial and prosecutorial roles.

Source

Landing page: https://www.sband.org/page/ethics_opinions
Original PDF: https://web.archive.org/web/20250000000000id_/https://www.sband.org/resource/resmgr/docs/for_lawyers/88-02.pdf

Original opinion text

Full opinion text unavailable from the official source; see the linked source above for the complete text.

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