Tuesday, December 31, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Judges' caseloads increase

Clark County cases up, workloads down

CARSON CITY -- The caseload in Nevada's trial courts increased 6.5 percent last fiscal year and, while Clark County District Court judges are the busiest among their peers, their workload declined slightly for a second consecutive year, a report released Monday shows.

Statewide, case filings for the year ending June 30 totaled 350,576, compared with 329,244 in fiscal year 2000-01, according to statistics gathered by the Nevada Supreme Court's Administrative Office of the Courts and released in the Annual Report of the Nevada Judiciary.

The report shows a small increase in the number of cases filed in Clark County District Court from July 1, 2001, to June 30, but because of an expansion in the size of the court, there was a slight decline in each judge's average caseload.

The judges averaged 2,247 cases each, down 3 percent from the 2,318 per judge in 2001.

The 2001 rate was down 1.6 percent from the 2,355 case average in the 2000 fiscal year report.

The annual report shows District Court judges in Clark County still have the highest caseload by far when compared to their counterparts elsewhere in Nevada.

The next highest caseload in the 2002 report was Washoe County at 1,828 cases per judge.

Clark County will have 33 district judges in January after three new District Court judges take the bench. The new judgeships were created by the 2001 Legislature and will reduce caseload growth.

The previous court expansion came in January 2001, when three new Family Court judges began work.

Clark County court officials could not be reached for comment on the report.

The annual report also shows the seven-member Nevada Supreme Court continued to reduce its backlog of cases during fiscal year 2001-02. At the end of the fiscal year, there were 1,474 cases pending, compared with 1,628 the year before. The high court backlog had been at 2,521 cases at the end of 1997.

The report also shows the 1,752 appeals filed in 2002 with the Supreme Court was virtually unchanged from the 1,760 filed the year before.

Nevada Supreme Court Justice Bill Maupin, who was chief justice during the fiscal year covered in the annual report, said the statistics, combined with limited state revenue, means the judiciary will be very stingy with any requests for more judges or funding in the 2003 legislative session.

"We're going to be very frugal with our requests," he said.

District judges and the Supreme Court have implemented a variety of management tools to improve the resolution of cases, and the results can be seen in the statistics, he said.

The unchanged caseload for the Supreme Court also means the effort to establish an intermediate court of appeals in Nevada will be put on hold for another two years, Maupin said. The court will seek to move a public vote on the question from 2004 to 2006, he said.

But arbitration and court specialization will only do so much good, and the state's population growth ultimately will require more judges and an intermediate appeals court, Maupin said.

In addition to the Supreme Court and district court caseloads, the report shows some of the biggest workloads occur in justice and municipal courts.

The busiest Justice Court by far was Las Vegas, with 12,691 cases filed per judge. Second was Reno Justice Court, which recorded 5,432 cases filed per judge.

North Las Vegas Municipal Court was the state's busiest with 6,812 cases filed per judge. Las Vegas Municipal Court was second with 6,723 cases per judge, and Sparks Municipal Court was third with 3,277 cases per judge.

District Court case filings statewide topped 100,000 for the first time in 2001-02, reaching 107,805, compared with 99,992 during fiscal year 2000-01, the report said.

The report issued Monday does not show the workloads of individual judges, but that information is released in another analysis, the Judicial Case Activity Report.

The activity report, most recently released in February, indicated the typical district judge in Clark County handled 2,201 cases in the prior year. Washoe County judges were ranked next with 1,478 cases per judge.