A city attorney can be an elected or appointed position in city and municipal government in the United States. The city attorney is the attorney representing the city or municipality.
In some small towns, the city attorney is usually a lawyer in private practice and handles only governmental matters. In other towns or cities the he or she also prosecutes minor crimes.
A city attorney generally handles all legal matters for the city, from traffic tickets to civil lawsuits to acting as a general counsel, giving legal advice for city departments.
Areas of focus may include:
- Civil claims against city (such as claims against the city police department)
- Criminal - prosecute misdemeanors and violations (felonies are usually prosecuted by a district attorney, State's Attorney or Commonwealth's Attorney)
- Real estate - drug/alcohol nuisance, substandard housing or code enforcement
Famous quotes containing the words city and/or attorney:
“The city of Washington is in some respects self-contained, and it is easy there to forget what the rest of the United States is thinking about. I count it a fortunate circumstance that almost all the windows of the White House and its offices open upon unoccupied spaces that stretch to the banks of the Potomac ... and that as I sit there I can constantly forget Washington and remember the United States.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“Even an attorney of moderate talent can postpone doomsday year after year, for the system of appeals that pervades American jurisprudence amounts to a legalistic wheel of fortune, a game of chance, somewhat fixed in the favor of the criminal, that the participants play interminably.”
—Truman Capote (1924–1984)