The Puerto Rico Department of Justice (PR DOJ) is the
Executive Department of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico responsible for the enforcement of the
local law in the commonwealth and the
administration of justice
The administration of justice is the process by which the legal system of a government is executed. The presumed goal of such an administration is to provide justice for all those accessing the legal system. The phrase is also commonly used to d ...
. The Department is equivalent to the
State Bureau of Investigation
A state bureau of investigation (SBI) is a state-level detective agency in the United States. They are plainclothes agencies which usually investigate both criminal and civil cases involving the state and/or multiple jurisdictions. They also typ ...
in many states. The Department is headed by the
Secretary of Justice of Puerto Rico
The secretary of justice of Puerto Rico ( es, Secretario de Justicia de Puerto Rico) (known as the attorney general of Puerto Rico prior to the Constitution of Puerto Rico in 1952) is the chief legal officer and the attorney general of the gover ...
and has been in existence in one form or another since Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony. The current agency was created by the
Constitution of Puerto Rico
The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, Constitución del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico) is the controlling government document of Puerto Rico. It is composed of nine articles detailing the structure of the government a ...
in 1952.
The Department, headquartered in a multi-story building in the
Miramar sector of
San Juan, includes a structure of
District Attorneys
In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...
to handle criminal caseload, as well as specialized divisions to handle antitrust cases, general civil cases, public integrity (corruption) and federal litigation, among others.
Agencies
*
Special Investigations Bureau
Secretary of Justice
The Department's head, the
Attorney General, is appointed by the
Governor of Puerto Rico, and serves at his pleasure, after receiving the consent of the
Senate of Puerto Rico
The Senate of Puerto Rico ( es, Senado de Puerto Rico) is the upper house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. The Senate, together with the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico, control t ...
. Puerto Rico's Solicitor General, which handles appellate work, is also appointed by the governor and subject to the
advice and consent
Advice and consent is an English phrase frequently used in enacting formulae of bills and in other legal or constitutional contexts. It describes either of two situations: where a weak executive branch of a government enacts something prev ...
of the Senate. Formers secretaries include:
See also
*
Crime in Puerto Rico
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...
*
Murder of Lorenzo González Cacho
References
External links
*
NAAG & ASCLD Partner to Assist Puerto Rico Forensic Science Laboratory
{{authority control
Department of Justice of Puerto Rico
Executive departments of the government of Puerto Rico
Government agencies established in 1952
1952 establishments in Puerto Rico