Thursday, Feb. 10, 2005 | 11:04 a.m.
Clark County judges have more and more cases to decide, but they are falling further and further behind because of the size of the workload.
That's the picture painted by the state judiciary's annual report, which was released today. The report underscores the court system's pleas for more resources in Southern Nevada, where seven new district judges are being requested.
The requested increase is overdue, said Chuck Short, administrator of the Clark County District Court.
"The people who make the funding decisions have to decide how long they want people charged with a crime in Clark County to have to wait for a hearing or trial," Short said.
The report shows that fast-growing Clark County accounted almost single-handedly for increases in judicial workload in recent years.
In fiscal year 2004, Clark County had 2,633 non-traffic cases filed per judicial position. That was 43 percent more than the next highest caseload, Washoe's 1,839.
Traffic cases were not included in the statistics because they typically do not come before a judge.
Clark County's numbers were also much higher than those in neighboring states. Arizona, for example, had 1,061 filings per judge, while California had 1,546, according to data from the National Center for State Courts that was included in the report.
"The growth in our caseload is deeply troubling to me," Short said. "Judges and staff are working very hard, but we're seeing an erosion in our service level. That's not good for the average person in Clark County who's getting a divorce, or who gets involved in a car accident, or who has their house burglarized."
The numbers show that even as more court cases pile up, fewer of them get resolved.
The number of non-traffic cases filed in Clark County -- criminal cases and civil lawsuits -- increased by nearly 10,000 from 2003 to 2004, from 77,136 to 86,878, a jump of 13 percent.
But in the same period, the number of cases disposed decreased 2 percent, from 78,064 to 76,790.
Short said that was probably because with more cases to push through the judicial pipeline, fewer could make it to the finish.
"Think of it like a freeway," he said. "You only have so much capacity, so the more traffic you have, the more congestion you get."
The courts decided to "suck it up" and not ask for any new judges in the 2003 legislative session, Short said. Three judges had been added by the 2001 Legislature.
But in the last four years, he said, the Clark County caseload has grown by 20,000 -- equivalent to the total caseload in Washoe County, which has 12 judges.
The court has tried novel approaches, such as the short trial program, in which attorneys are on strict time limits to finish a trial in a single day; they punch clocks similar to those used in high-speed chess matches.
But the court's creativity has been stretched to the limit, Short said. Now, only 74 percent of criminal cases are being resolved within a year; the nationally recommended standard is 100 percent except for capital murder cases.
"That means we have about 2,000 cases where people charged with a crime are either out on the streets for more than a year, or in the Clark County Detention Center," Short said. "Either way, it's not right."
Nevada Supreme Court Chief Justice Nancy Becker said other jurisdictions in the state have grown, but none as much as Clark County.
"The courts have used a number of innovative methods to process cases, but without additional resources, there's not a lot they can do," she said.
Statewide, the caseload in district courts increased by 8 percent, to 124,000. The total non-traffic caseload of all trial courts in the state -- municipal courts, justice courts and district courts -- also increased 8 percent, to 377,000.
The Nevada Supreme Court disposed of the lowest number of cases in five years in fiscal 2004. The court issued 1,750 orders or opinions, down from 1,889 in fiscal 2003.
Supreme Court spokesman Bill Gang said the death of Justice Myron Leavitt in January 2004 left a vacancy on the court for several months.
Traffic cases have declined statewide and are now at their lowest level since 2000. Becker theorized that that was due to a reallocation of law-enforcement resources away from traffic since 9/11.
Becker noted that the request to the Legislature for seven new judges is actually not a lot of money because it covers only six months. The new judges would be elected in 2006 and take office in 2007.
And in fact, most of the cost of the new judges would be borne by Clark County.
The state pays for judges' salaries, benefits and training -- about $190,000 per judge per year -- while the counties pay for facilities such as the long-under-construction Regional Justice Center, court staff, and the district attorneys and public defenders who try cases in the system.
That means the state ends up paying only about 15 percent of the total cost of adding a new judge, which is estimated at about $1.3 million, not counting facilities, Short said.
Meanwhile, the county is requesting some 1,700 new police officers as authorized by the "More Cops" ballot initiative. That means more arrests, which means more criminal cases, which means more judges, prosecutors, defenders and detention workers will be needed, Short said.
Court representatives are meeting with the county manager's office later this month to discuss the judges request, which the county has not yet gotten behind, Short said.
County Manager Thom Reilly said county finances are still up in the air until the property tax issue can be decided, and many worthy agencies are competing for scarce funds.
"It always comes down to how we prioritize the limited resources we have throughout the county," he said. The County Commission was scheduled to meet today to take a preliminary look at funding priorities, he said.
Sun reporter Cy Ryan contributed to this story.
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