Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Public Defender gets three more lawyers

Funding for juvenile division posts approved

Clark County commissioners approved funding for three new attorneys in the Public Defender's juvenile division on Tuesday, with hopes of reducing the caseload of the division's lawyers.

In May, Clark County Manager Thom Reilly announced the elimination of 20 mid-level management positions, which freed $2.3 million for new positions.

Aside from those new positions, paid for by the general fund, Reilly identified 40 additional jobs he wanted to fill, which he referred to as the "B-list." He said Tuesday the much-needed public defender attorneys were left off the B-list. Commissioners approved the amendment to the list on Tuesday.

Two years ago, the Public Defender's juvenile division had two attorneys who each were assigned an average of 955 cases a year. The three additional lawyers will bring the number of attorneys handling a skyrocketing number of juvenile cases to 13, Reilly said.

Each attorney will likely handle about 400 cases per year. The national standard is 200 cases per attorney.

"Is that enough? No, but we're making progress," Reilly said. "The number of cases (per attorney) is still high; but if you take any of our departments, they're out of whack with national standards . We are understaffed."

Reilly said the county will be able to fund 30 of the 40 positions proposed on his B-list.

Seven attorney positions were created for the Public Defender's adult division, nine positions were created in the district attorney's office and 11 jobs were created in the Family Services division.