N.M. Stat. § 36-1-19

This is the official text of N.M. Stat. § 36-1-19, part of New Mexico’s Stat — part of the compiled statutory law of New Mexico, published by the state as "Stat." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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§ 36-1-19. Legal representation; state; county

Official statutory text

A. Except as provided in Subsections B and C of this section, no one shall represent the state or any county thereof in any matter in which the state or county is interested except the attorney general, his legally appointed and qualified assistants or the district attorney or his legally appointed and qualified assistants and such associate counsel as may appear on order of the court, with the consent of the attorney general or district attorney.

B. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a board of county commissioners may contract with private counsel for legal assistance to or representation of the county in any civil matter in which the county is interested. Such private counsel shall have the same powers of compromise, satisfaction or release in civil proceedings as are held by district attorneys pursuant to Section 36-1-22 NMSA 1978 .

C. The private legal assistance permitted pursuant to Subsection B of this section shall not extend to the prosecution of any criminal action without the permission of the district attorney for that county, provided that such permission shall not be required for the prosecution of any violation of a county ordinance.

Status: in_force

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.