Talks to consolidate courts are in recess

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Oct. 5, 1999 | 11:12 a.m.

Talks to consolidate the Las Vegas Municipal and Clark County Justice courts that had been suspended for three years were quietly resurrected this summer and a committee of judges started to hammer out details of such a consolidation.

Now those talks, begun in August, have been put on hold and the two court systems are quietly waiting for the furor over deconsolidation of the Metro Police Department to play out.

Municipal Court Administrator Mike Havemann said it would be somewhat "schizophrenic" to pursue judicial consolidation while Metro may be in the process of breaking up.

"The issue is on ice until Metro deconsolidation is resolved," Justice Court Administrator Steven Morris agreed. "If it goes away, we will reopen the court consolidation issue."

The courts and the governments have toyed with the idea of merging the lower courts for years as a way of eliminating duplication of services, equalizing treatment of offenders and eliminating jurisdictional confusion.

In 1994 the Nevada Supreme Court Urban Court Workload Assessment Commission -- the so-called Rose Commission -- recommended consolidation of the lower courts, which handle the same types of misdemeanor and traffic cases.

Justice Court, however, also handles felony arraignments and preliminary hearings, minor civil cases, evictions and small claims.

Residents getting a traffic ticket or misdemeanor citation on opposite sides of Sahara Avenue would appear before different courts -- the south side in Justice Court in the County Courthouse, on the north side at Municipal Court in City Hall.

The county facility is at Third Street and Carson Avenue while the city court is three blocks away at Las Vegas Boulevard and Stewart Avenue.

It is not unusual for offenders to show up in one courthouse only to learn they should be at the other -- and are late for their scheduled hearing.

The source of the citation also can mean the difference between a moderate fine -- as lawyers say occurs in Justice Court -- or a large fine coupled with mandatory classes or counseling, which often occurs in Municipal Court.

The way consolidation would work, according to those involved, would be for the city to abolish its Municipal Courts and for the Justice Courts to expand to take over their functions.

It couldn't work the other way because of the additional duties the Justice Courts must perform.

Justice of the Peace Deborah Lippis, who is head of the committee-in-waiting, said that equal justice is one area she believes could benefit from consolidation.

"The big concern is how the consolidated court would handle cases the city is concerned about," Havemann said, noting that city officials want to deal effectively with vagrants and minor drug peddlers who plague the downtown area.

Havemann said he knows that "in Justice Court they are dealt with quicker and are in and out quicker."

Lippis said the committee also is exploring potential cost savings and access issues.

Cost was a factor three years ago, when the Municipal Court was operating $5 million to $8 million in the red and officials were touting consolidation as a way to bring property taxes for city residents to a level equal to what county residents pay.

But since then the Municipal Court has streamlined its operation by cutting days of operation from six days to five, reducing the operating hours from 13 to 10 a day and by cutting staff over the last two years by 45 positions, or 22 percent.

At the same time the number of cases grew by 23 percent.

Haveman said that in June the city court "crossed the threshhold" into the black.

Lippis said that any saving through consolidation won't be immediate, but will occur over time through a more efficient court system.

Morris, who was assistant Municipal Court administrator before becoming Justice Court administrator a couple of years ago, added that it is anticipated a merger would require fewer new judges to be added over the years.

He noted that if consolidation occurred today, he would need only three or four of the six Municipal Court judges to maintain the same level of services.

But by the time consolidation could occur, he said, all six city judges would be needed.

Lippis said that while consolidation is predicted to save money eventually, it likely would cost taxpayer dollars at the outset.

At least one issue will be resolved with or without consolidation -- both courts will be located on the same floor of the new Regional Justice Center, so those appearing before one court won't have far to walk if they made an error.

The latest consolidation talks were resumed because of the imminent construction of the new Justice Center.

If the courts are to be consolidated, it would change the design of the new court complex. Taxpayers' money could be saved by having temporary walls rather than permanent ones constructed to set the stage for the merger.

The Justice Center is going to be completed in about two years, but Morris said that consolidation could not occur for five to seven years because of a myriad of issue that must be sorted out. They include:

"The devil is in the details," Morris said.

Staffing isn't one of the big concerns, however, because the 20-plus percent growth in both courts will require all members of both staffs by the time consolidation could occur, Morris said.

Consolidation involves more than just merging judges and staffs, standardizing court functions and dealing with funding. The two courts have fundamentally different philosophies on how to handle cases and what the function of the court should be.

Havemann said that in city courts, domestic violence and drunken driving cases are "kind of the cream of the crop ... our big-deal cases."

He added that the court system "focuses our resources and time to get people to correct their behavior."

Morris conceded the differing treatment of similar cases in the two court systems is "a complex issue to be worked through."

Lippis said that treatment and sentencing of defendants should be left to judges.

"Obviously, judicial philosophies, experiences and understandings of the dynamics of certain crimes will play a role in the sentencing of criminals," she said.

But whether the courts get back to the issue of consolidation is out of their hands for the moment until the future of Metro is decided.

"Until then, it's on ice," Morris said.