Clark County Chief Judge Kathy Hardcastle announced Tuesday that District Court in 2007 will take over the court clerk's office now under the Clark County clerk.

About 270 workers are in the county clerk's office, about 230 of whom are support staff for District Court, said Clark County Clerk Shirley Parraguirre.

Placing the 230 staff members under the District Court's authority will cost the county more than $1 million to hire an additional 18 employees, Parraguirre said.

She said the county government needs additional clerks to process notary and passport documents, fictitious firm names, the filing of wills and marriage licenses, among other duties.

In 2001, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled Washoe County District Court could take over the court clerk's office, which is listed in the state constitution as a responsibility of the elected county clerk.

Parraguirre, who is up for re-election this fall, said she thinks District Court judges are overlooking the majority's opinion in that case, that such a reorganization should not take place unless the court demonstrates it is essential to the operations of the court.

"We have brought this office to the 21st century. We are now doing electronic filing, we are imaging all our own documents, the papers are getting within the file in one day, orders, copy requests are being done within a day or two," Parraguirre said. "This office has never been in better shape."

As demands on the court have grown, it has experienced a shortage of staff, including court clerks, Hardcastle said. The court is competing for clerks with the county government, which is facing a staffing shortage too and often uses the judicial clerks to work "mandatory" overtime, she said.

"The court needs to be able to set the priorities and make the determination of how the court is going to do business," Hardcastle said. "We've got two branches of government involved. We have a county clerk, executive branch officer and the judicial branch; sometimes there are competing interests there."

She said a North Las Vegas court clerk has an average caseload of 600 cases per year. In Henderson, a court clerk has about 800 cases per year. At District Court, they each have 2,400.

"Our employees are so overworked," she said.

All workers will keep the same collective bargaining rights and other benefits under the District Court as they do under the county, she said.