https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/commonwealthattorney/current-caseload-capacity
Current Caseload Capacity
The Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office serves our community by keeping it safe, reflecting its values, and ensuring justice is done. One of the ways in which the Office achieves these goals is by handling a notably wider array of cases than is statutorily required. Typically, Commonwealth’s Attorney’s offices across Virginia pursue only the cases they are obligated to prosecute by law—felony cases in Circuit Court and appeals to Circuit Court from the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. By contrast, this Office strives to do much more by additionally prosecuting misdemeanor and traffic cases, well beyond the statutory requirements. However, as the most underfunded Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office in the Commonwealth of Virginia, this Office must deploy its limited resources with the objective of prosecuting the largest number of cases possible while maintaining the ability to give each case the individual time and attention it deserves and our community expects. There are no shortcuts to justice—only injustice in the absence of thorough and ethical prosecutorial work. As part of its mission to do justice in every case it touches, the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office will regularly review its capacity to ensure the Office is handling as many cases as it can while also giving those cases the attention they deserve.
The Commonwealth's Attorney's Office has analyzed its current resources and determined the following:
FELONY CASES
The Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office will be involved in all felony cases in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court (JDR), General District Court (GDC), and Circuit Court (Circuit). This includes felony probation violations and attendant programs such as Drug Court.
MISDEMEANOR CASES
With respect to misdemeanor cases, the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office is currently handling the following matters:
DWI (GDC and Circuit)
Intimate partner domestic violence (IPDV) (JDR and Circuit)
Stalking (JDR, GDC, and Circuit)
Sexual battery (JDR, GDC, and Circuit)
Violation of protective orders issued in stalking & IPDV cases (JDR, GDC, and Circuit)
Traffic fatalities (JDR, GDC, and Circuit)
Possession of marijuana with an offense date prior to July 1, 2020 (GDC and Circuit)
Violations of §18.2-308.1:6 arising out of noncompliance with a substantial risk order issued pursuant to §§19.2-152.13 or 19.2-152.14 (JDR, GDC, and Circuit)
Misdemeanor cases attached to felony cases to the extent such cases are part of the same incident and have been consolidated with the felony case(s) for preliminary hearing. (JDR, GDC, and Circuit)
Misdemeanor cases covered by VA Code 16.1-232 appealed from JDR to Circuit.
Veterans Treatment Docket
Mental Health Docket
Offenses relating to failure to register under, or providing materially false information to, the Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors registry. (GDC and Circuit)
Cases pertaining to statutory duties under §3.2-6507.6 with respect to the enforcement of Article 2.1 under the Comprehensive Animal Care Act. (GDC and Circuit)
Criminal violations of election law, such as voter intimidation or interference and disturbance or disruption of polling places.
Any case of significance or public importance as determined by the Commonwealth’s Attorney.
THIS LIST IS UPDATED REGULARLY
PLEASE NOTE: If an individual is charged with a misdemeanor offense that is not listed here (including traffic infractions), although the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office may not be involved in a case, the prosecution of that case will still proceed by other means. That individual is still required to appear in court and follow the prescribed actions related to their charge.
The Fairfax County Court System is currently processing a considerable number of backlogged cases due to the COVID-19 crisis. Therefore, in addition to the above-mentioned case types, there are a number of specific cases that the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office has previously appeared in and will maintain their involvement with moving forward. These cases are denoted here:
CASES CWA IS MAINTAINING APPEARANCES
The full list of backlogged cases that the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office will be maintaining appearances in can be viewed/downloaded HERE.
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/commonwealthattorney/sites/commonwealthattorney/files/Assets/documents/CWA%20Public%20List%20of%20COVID%20Cases%20Being%20Handled.pdf
PLEASE NOTE: There may be a rare occasion when the CWA's Office has previously signed a discovery order or made an in-person appearance that has been inadvertently omitted from this list. If you are an attorney and believe that is the case, please contact the CWA's Office for clarification.