Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

District Court judges at odds over supervisory system plan

A potentially volatile meeting of District Court judges was scheduled for today over a controversial plan by the Nevada Legislature and Nevada Supreme Court to install a strong chief judge over the system.

In advocating the system, Chief Justice Robert Rose told the Legislature last week that two or three judges in Clark County don't seem to be carrying their share of the load or helping fellow judges deal with ever-growing caseloads.

Rose's comments and the proposed supervisory system have drawn reactions from the judges ranging from disdain to enthusiastic support.

As it stands, district judges are independently elected officials responsible only to the voters. They handle their caseloads as they see fit and control their hours and vacation days.

While there are chief judges in Clark and Washoe counties, they hold administrative positions with no authority over the other judges.

The strong chief judge system, Rose said, would provide teeth for the presiding judge to enforce "reasonable hours of work, reasonable vacations and other reasonable procedures for the processing of caseloads."

Some judges in Clark County reportedly have been working behind the scenes to derail the proposal that would limit their vacation time and mandate they be present in the courthouse throughout most of the day.

Other planned rules would require judges whose trials settle or are plea bargained to accept overflow trials from other judges. Under the current voluntary system, that has rarely happened.

Last year the number of jury trials for judges with regular caseloads varied widely, from a low of nine to a high of 30.

Today's meeting of district judges, which may be closed to the public, was to get input from the judges about the proposed rules, said Chief District Judge Lee Gates.

One of those advocating the strong chief judge system is District Judge Gene Porter.

"I'm in favor of it and always have been in favor of it," Porter said. "It's long overdue.

"If a judge is intellectually honest about doing the job, there is nothing wrong with it. If people do their jobs, there is nothing to worry about."

Chief District Judge Lee Gates agreed that the proposed rules or the strong chief judge system should have no negative impact on the judges or the judicial system.

"It's good to have standards. Standards aren't going to hurt us," Gates said. "In any organization there needs to be someone to make sure things move along the way they are supposed to."

Gates declined to discuss the judges that Rose suggested were slacking off, choosing instead to praise "the vast majority" of judges in Clark County who he said are more than meeting the proposed standards.

Rose acknowledged that he has received criticism by not naming those he said "are not pulling their weight" and, thus, cast aspersions on all judges.

In a letter Thursday to Gates, the chief justice stated "I had no intention of painting all district judges with the same brush."

"I think a lot of judges are putting out 150 percent," Gates said. "They spend long hours and weekends. I think the public is getting its money's worth out of the vast majority of judges."

In his speech to the Legislature, Rose focused on judges who "do not cooperate to run the court system in the most efficient manner. It is simply not fair to most of the hard-working judges when one or two judges are not putting in the same work hours or effort as the others."

But there is concern whether strict standards and a judicial supervisor will produce the desired result.

District Judge Sally Loehrer, who puts in some of the longest hours and piles up some of the highest jury trial statistics, said the proposal seems to seek cookie-cutter judges.

"People are people," she said, explaining that judges handle cases differently and shouldn't be penalized for their differing approaches.

"I don't think any set of rules can be crafted to reform and reshape 27 individuals into one judge with 26 clones," she said.

She said some judges are able to settle cases without going to trial while other judges would take the same cases to trial. Of those, Loehrer continued, the amount of time it would take to conduct the trials may vary by several days.

"Are we to walk in lockstep?" Loehrer asked. "Because the accountability of judges can't be measured in widgets produced, (court) rules can't produce the desired result."

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