Assembly says only lawyers can be justices of the peace

Monday, March 8, 1999 | 10:36 a.m.

AB86 says that anyone who seeks election as a justice of the peace must be lawyer if they are running in a township with more than 100,000 residents that is also in a county larger that 400,000 people.

Besides North Las Vegas and Henderson, the only other city that would qualify is Las Vegas - and JPs there already must be attorneys.

Backers of AB86, now going to the Senate, argued that justices of the peace hear cases that are every bit as complicated as their district court colleagues, who are required to be lawyers.

"Clearly when you have someone who is formally trained in there making decisions, you have the opportunity to be more successful than perhaps the layperson," Assemblyman Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, told the Assembly.

But opponents weren't convinced that local districts will be better served by lawyers as judges in all cases.

"We have historically felt that people should be elected by their overall qualities as judged by those people voting for them. If a person is not an attorney, that would be taken into consideration by the person voting," said Assemblyman Bob Price, D-North Las Vegas.

Assemblyman Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, the Democrats' second in command, countered, "We can vote them out. But unfortunately this is a six-year term and a lot of damage can be done in six years."

But in rural areas, however, AB86 might not be practical, said Assemblyman Tom Collins, D-North Las Vegas.

In some areas, finding a lawyer to run for office "would be like finding a pine tree in the desert," he said during a break from the floor session.