CARSON CITY -- A bill to create 10 new district judgeships would cost Clark County $41 million, as the county struggles to deal with huge medical and child protection costs, a county lobbyist testified Wednesday.

Sabra Smith-Newby told the Assembly Judiciary Committee that the cost of court expansion is prohibitive because the Clark County Commission must now allocate $60 million to bail out University Medical Center and spend an additional $7 million for child welfare program improvements.

Smith-Newby was one of the few to testify against Assembly Bill 246, which would create 10 new district judgeships in Clark County, along with two in Washoe County. Six of the new Clark County judges would handle family court matters.

Assembly Judiciary Chairman Bernie Anderson, D-Las Vegas, took no vote on the matter. The bill must also be approved by the Assembly Ways and Means Committee. A final decision is not likely until shortly before the Legislature adjourns June 4.

Anderson warned two Supreme Court justices and eight District Court judges at the hearing that the bill could die if they amend it to allow Nye County to create its own court district.

Anderson also said district judges are not paying enough attention to specialty courts, which handle drug, construction defect, business and other cases. "I am beginning to think there isn't a real dedication from the bench to make these programs work," Anderson said.

Supreme Court Justice James Hardesty disagreed, but added that "if we don't have resources, much of this becomes academic. You pass laws that have a cause and effect on the judiciary." Courts in urban areas cannot currently handle divorce and custody cases in a reasonable time period, Hardesty said.

Anderson shot back that in his 33 years as a high school teacher only once did he have 30 or fewer students in a class. That is the maximum amount, according to Anderson, that an accreditation agency recommends.

"If the ABA (American Bar Association) accredited agencies of our court system, we would not be accredited," Hardesty responded. "Not even close."

Family courts in other states handle 900 to 1,300 cases a year, while those in Clark County must deal with 4,000, Hardesty said. "This isn't justice. This isn't an emotional appeal. This is fact."

Chief Justice Bill Maupin said the backlog in Clark County today reminds him of the early 1990s when "civil lawyers weren't able to do business in the Clark County courthouse. It was incredibly hard to get a trial date."

The court made construction defect and business cases a priority in response to legislative policy, but now they need additional civil and criminal judges, he said.

But Smith-Newby said new judgeships will be more costly for Clark County than the state.

The state only must pay for the salaries and benefits of the additional district judges, which are paid $130,000 a year, she said. The county, however, must build courts at a cost of $2.1 million per courtroom, pay court staff, and hire public defenders and district attorneys. Those salaries will cost $7.3 million a year for the 10 new courts, according to estimates.