Las Vegas Sun

November 16, 2009

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Editorial: Court specialization needs more debate

Monday, Sept. 23, 2002 | 8:49 a.m.

There's no denying that we live in the age of specialization. Doctors and lawyers who specialize are the first to come to mind. But everyone can think of dozens of fields that employ specialists. Certainly our court system specializes. In Clark County, District Court judges have agreed among themselves who will consistently handle civil cases and who will consistently handle criminal cases. On a more formal level, there's Drug Court and Family Court. Consideration is under way for a Domestic Violence Court.

But how far should the specialization of judges go? Gaining support now is the idea of creating a Mental Health Court. We caution against rushing into this. Specialization may very well be convenient and efficient from an administrative point of view. But will justice be served if this theory takes hold and judges are elected who will never look at cases except through the narrow view of their specialty? We'd like to see some earnest debate on this issue.

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