Judicial reform

     Miriam Shearing, the chief justice of the Nevada Supreme Court, told the Legislature last week that the legal system has become too expensive for many people.
      "We can have the best legal system in the world, but if people can't afford to use it, can't afford to get their day in court, it is a failure," she said.
      The answer to the problem, Chief Justice Shearing seemed to indicate, would require innovative approaches to providing legal services to the poor. And the Supreme Court has directed Nevada courts to try to come up with new ways to do that.
      Fine. Attorneys do many hours of pro bono work; encouraging more voluntary donations of expertise certainly wouldn't hurt.
      But it will do little to alleviate the real problem: a legal system that has become a morass of continuances, postponements and costly maneuvering.
      The legal system is expensive because legislators and bureaucrats continue to pile on the laws and regulations, and attorneys milk it for all it's worth. The law has become so complicated the average person may not know when he breaks it. Criminal and civil matters drag on for months, even years, even decades. ... A legal system that fails to quickly resolve even simple matters inevitably drives costs skyward.
      Want to make the legal system more affordable and accessible? Offering freebies to the poor will hardly make a dent. Instead, investigate ways to prioritize, simplify and streamline the judicial process. And tell the gang in Carson City they can start by thinning out the state statutes rather than continuing to pad them.