Family Court Department G

Thursday, Aug. 15, 2002 | 9:31 a.m.

There is no primary election for candidates in four of the six Family Court judicial races.

The following nonpartisan races, which will be on the November ballot only, are:

Department G

A relative newcomer, Jeffrey Neeman is challenging Family Court Judge Cynthia Dianne Steel.

Steel, who has served as presiding judge for the past three years, had little law experience when she was elected after having served in the Legislature and as chief of staff to then Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren.

For the last year she has been handling delinquency cases in Juvenile Court and has been working to make the local juvenile rules more uniform.

Steel said that during her three-year tenure as presiding judge she has helped build consensus among the judges. She also was instrumental in creating Donna's House, the county's first supervised child visitation and exchange center. She said she hopes to continue to work toward making court procedures more efficient and pursuing effective programs that will address community needs.

Steel is president of the Eighth Judicial District Court Pro Bono Foundation and the Nevada District Judges Association. She has been a member of numerous District Court committees and testifies on Family Court issues before the Legislature.

Neeman is a partner in his own law firm. Although he has been practicing family law for only two years, he said he has done the "gamut of family law." He previously handled construction defect cases for Lionel Sawyer and Collins.

Neeman's main campaign issue is "the caliber of work performed at Family Court."

He added that civil procedure rules are not always enforced in Family Court.