Sisolak backs funding inquiry into process server scandal

County Commissioner Steve Sisolak led the charge to take away longevity pay for new justices of the peace as a way to save taxpayers money.

But now he’s solidly behind Las Vegas Justice Court officials who want $60,000 to hire a special hearing master to sort out the mess created by a sweeping process server scandal.

Officials need the hearing master to review some 20,000 debt collection cases to determine whether the rights of any of the defendants were violated when they were slapped with default judgments.

Maurice Carroll, the owner of On Scene Mediations, and his office manager Vilisia Coleman, have been charged with filing false affidavits claiming to have served defendants in several of those cases. The default judgments were entered against the defendants when they didn’t respond to the suits.

Court officials believe On Scene Mediations was the process server in a large portion of the 20,000 cases.

Sisolak says he will vote to fund the hearing master when the County Commission takes up the request at its Sept. 7 meeting.
 
"I feel for the people who lost cases based on this," Sisolak says. "It’s just not right. We need to fix it."