District Court changes to start Jan. 1

Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2000 | 10:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Starting Jan. 1, District Court judges in Clark County will have to speed up their decisions and a new court will be created to exclusively handle business disputes.

The Nevada Supreme Court, after verbally approving these changes in September, on Monday issued formal, written approval for the changes to go into effect.

"It is the goal of the court to achieve a final resolution in 80 percent of its civil cases within 24 months of filing and a final resolution in 95 percent of its cases within 36 months of the date of filing," the high court wrote.

It now takes about 33 months before the trial is held and a decision is issued.

The new rules allow eight months from the date the suit was filed for both sides to complete pretrial discovery. All pretrial motions must be heard and decided no later than 15 days before trial.

District judges, under the new rules, must issue a decision within 20 days after a case is submitted to them. In an extraordinarily complex case, the decision may take as long as 30 days.

There's possible disciplinary action against any judge who lets cases pile up because of inactivity, neglect or inadequate management. A case-flow committee, created to oversee the management of cases, must meet with the errant judge first to discuss the problem.

The case-flow committee, composed of the judges, can recommend to the chief judge a variety of options in an effort to get the judge current. The chief judge can require the judge, who is tardy, to attend proceedings with a judge who is up-to-date in the handling of his cases.

The chief justice could refuse the request from the errant judge to spend money not related to items that impact his productivity. The judge could be required to attend an educational program on docket management and develop a plan for improvement.

The chief judge could curtail the judge's time away from the court or send a letter of complaint to the Nevada Judicial Discipline Commission.

To avoid cases languishing after being filed, the court administrator will provide the judges with a list of all the civil cases that have not been served or answered within 180 days of the filing. The district judge, to whom the case has been assigned, can call the parties into court and dismiss the complaint.

The court administrator also is being required to submit other cases that have been pending for anywhere from two years to four years with little or no action. The judges can also notify the parties and call a hearing. The complaint can then be dismissed.

The rule change also calls for the creation of a Business Court division with at least two judges assigned to hear these cases.

These would involve shareholder suits, disputes over ownership of a company, trademarks, securities investments and trade secret cases.

The newly created Business Court would not handle personal injury cases, product liability suits, complaints by consumers against businesses, landlord-tenant disputes or wrongful firing cases.