§ 140B.111.Cooperation with Local Prosecutor

The reply, and the duty it creates runs one way.

Subsection (a): a local prosecutor who receives notice may notify the attorney general of a related pending criminal investigation or prosecution. Subsection (b): that notification must be in writing and must describe or otherwise identify the defendant or suspect.

Nothing compels a prosecutor to answer. Silence is permitted, and a prosecutor who prefers not to reveal an investigation may stay silent — though doing so gives up the protections in this section and the next.

Subsection (c) places two obligations on the attorney general. To coordinate and cooperate with the local prosecutor to ensure that the filing of an action under this chapter does not interfere with an ongoing criminal investigation or prosecution. And to update the local prosecutor on matters affecting the action or the investigation.

The standard is to ensure, not to endeavour, and the update duty is continuing — so this is a relationship maintained through the life of the case, not a single exchange.

Note the asymmetry. The prosecutor may reply; the attorney general must then coordinate. Nothing obliges the prosecutor to accommodate the civil action in return.

That allocation reflects what each proceeding risks. A criminal prosecution compromised by premature civil discovery may fail permanently; a civil action can wait.

Coordination is also more feasible here than under the older chapter, because a local prosecutor holds the consent required for the property remedies. The two offices are negotiating, not merely notifying.