Building defects lawsuits overload courts

Kim Smith

Monday, Oct. 29, 2001 | 9:32 a.m.

So many construction defects lawsuits have been filed over the past three years that the Clark County District Court is bringing in extra judges and renting additional courtrooms.

About 150 such cases have been filed since 1998, and another five to 10 new lawsuits are filed each month, Court Administrator Chuck Short said.

That number, when compared with 30,000 civil cases pending in District Court, may not seem like a lot, but the load poses a problem for the county.

The cases are extraordinarily involved, not only because of the number of people involved, but because of the number of motions that are filed and the length of time it takes to try such cases.

It isn't unusual for a judge to hear 50 to 100 motions during a single pretrial hearing, and the trials themselves take three to five months, Short said.

"They account for only 1 percent of our filings, and yet they are taking 20 to 30 percent of the judges' times in certain departments over the course of a year," Short said.

The problem was exacerbated this year when the Legislature passed a bill that requires judges to try such cases before all other civil trials, Short said.

The lawmakers' decision coincided with a multitude of such cases finally reaching the point where they could proceed to trial -- thus sending judges scrambling to find a way to try the cases without lengthening too much the time other civil litigants have to wait to have their cases heard.

Until May no construction defect cases had made it all the way to trial.

Short said the judges had been able to reduce the amount of time a civil case took before it got to trial from 44 months to three years and had hoped to reduce it to two years.

Now because of the number of construction defect cases, it will be difficult to achieve that goal, Short said.

Further complicating the matter is that although 14 judges handle civil cases on a rotating basis, the defendants, experts and defense attorneys in each case tend to be the same.

As a result, only two trials can be held at any one time, Short said.

Unfortunately, even holding two trials at once is difficult, because the Clark County Court House doesn't have the space to hold so many people at once.

Instead of having one or two attorneys standing beside one plaintiff and one defendant, such cases may involve 20 attorneys and hundreds of plaintiffs, Short said.

In one upcoming case against the developer Del Webb, for example, 6,000 plaintiffs from Summerlin are suing one contractor and dozens of subcontractors, Short said. That doesn't count the multitude of experts called by each side during a trial.

Not only is there not enough room in the courtroom for everyone and the exhibits, there's precious little space outside the courtroom for waiting witnesses.

A group of judges who formed a committee to address the issue came up with ways to ease at least a couple of the problems.

They obtained the permission of the Nevada Supreme Court to bring in visiting and semi-retired judges to help judges who are overseeing construction defect cases.

While judges are in trial on the construction defect cases, the visiting judges will preside over routine matters in other cases -- whether they involve criminal or civil cases, Short said.

As for space, the county is negotiating with the federal government to rent courtrooms at the Foley Federal Building for one year, Rick Loop, assistant court administrator, said.

The county hopes to rent the space for a year, although it is currently working out details over insurance issues, Loop said. The county is already renting space in the downtown Phoenix Building.

District Judge Michael Douglas is the first district judge to preside over a jury trial in which the contractors and subcontractors were tried at once.

He spent four months in the Phoenix building hearing a case that was originally supposed to last six to eight weeks.

Had 40 homeowners and several subcontractors not reached a settlement ahead of time, it would have lasted even longer, Douglas said. By the end of the trial, there were 91 plaintiffs, one contractor, 14 subcontractors and 2,000-plus exhibits.

"If we go along status quo, we'll be buried," Douglas said. "The citizens won't get the satisfaction of getting their cases heard."

Douglas said the help of the visiting and senior judges will be greatly appreciated. He lost an average of 10 trial hours per week during his construction defect case, because he had to hear his regular morning calendar.

Had he been able to devote those hours to the trial, Douglas said, it could have ended days earlier.

The judge hopes as more of these cases go to trial, more parties will reach settlements.

Often, if it appears that a case could go to trial -- space is available and the judges ready -- the parties will do whatever is necessary to settle, Douglas said.

In addition, parties will know what to expect after having watched previous trials.

"We need five or six of these cases to go forward so the parties can have a point of reference, so they can see what a good settlement will be," Douglas said. "Right now, these cases are so new, there's no track record. They don't know what a case is really worth or if it's even worth going forward with."

The parties will also know which motions are being granted or denied, Short said. If certain types of motions haven't been granted, chances are they won't be filed by other lawyers.

Short and Douglas said they hope to still reach their goal of getting all civil cases resolved within two years.

"When people file something in court, they want a speedy resolution," Douglas said. "If we can get them taken care of in two or 2 1/2 years, we're doing well."

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