LOOKING IN ON: THE COURTS

Sam Skolnik

Saturday, Jan. 6, 2007 | 6:59 a.m.

Former Supreme Court Justice Nancy Becker is in discussions with the district attorney's office to work in its appellate division, District Attorney David Roger confirmed this week.

Becker, who lost her re-election bid last November to District Judge Nancy Saitta, opted not to apply to serve as a senior, part-time District Court judge. Because she was defeated, Becker was barred from becoming a senior Supreme Court justice.

Roger said Becker "wants to come work for us" but that salary was a sticking point. By rule, he said, new deputy district attorneys in his office start with a $60,000 annual salary.

"Obviously, that's not feasible for Justice Becker," Roger said. He said he is in discussions with Assistant Clark County Manager Elizabeth Quillin to figure out ways to make an exception.

As a sitting Supreme Court justice, Becker earned a base salary of $140,000.

If a deal is reached, Becker would come to the office's appellate division as veteran unit chief Jim Tuftland nears retirement. Roger would not say whether Becker, if hired, would eventually replace Tuftland, or work in some other capacity in the office.

Becker could not be reached for comment.

Roger said "it seems self-evident" why his office has been wooing Becker, who has been a Las Vegas city attorney's office prosecutor, District Court judge and Supreme Court justice . "She's got a wide range of experience," he said.

For years, court administrators in Clark County have complained that judges here have been laboring under some of the heaviest caseloads in the country. Additional courtroom space is desperately needed, they say, as are more judges, clerks and staffers, so that justice can be administered with greater speed and assurance.

The release of the Annual Report of the Nevada Judiciary on Thursday bolstered their claims.

A whopping 83,271 cases were filed in Clark County's 8th Judicial District Court during fiscal year 2006, according to the report - translating to an average of 2,523 cases filed for each of the county's 33 District Court judges, who handle the most serious criminal and civil cases. The fiscal year ran from July 1, 2005, through June 30 of last year.

Even busier were the county's Justice Courts, which handle felony arraignments, preliminary hearings and small civil matters, and the Las Vegas Municipal Courts, which oversee traffic violations and misdemeanors.

Municipal Court judges handled an average of 5,277 cases in fiscal year 2006, according to the report, and Justices of the Peace oversaw 14,099 new cases each - about triple the number of cases handled by their counterparts in Washoe County, the second-busiest jurisdiction.

The overall caseload numbers for all three courts have crept upward steadily over the last half-decade. Yet the relative amount the state is spending on the judiciary has gone down.

Though the dollar amount budgeted for the courts has risen, the percentage of the judicial branch share of the state's General Fund - almost $22 million - has been dropping over the last several years, from 0.88 percent in fiscal year 2004 to a projected 0.75 percent for fiscal year 2007, according to the report, which was compiled by the Administrative Office of the Courts.

As the Clark County courts convene this year, not all cases are being heard in the main Las Vegas courthouse.

For the next several months, while the Regional Justice Center at 3rd Street and Lewis Avenue downtown finally finishes construction on its 10th floor, civil cases slated for Department 17 will be heard across the street, in a makeshift courtroom on the 11th floor of the Phoenix Building at 330 S. 3rd St.

Those cases will be heard by a senior judge yet to be named.

The 10th-floor construction, which will include new courtrooms and judicial chambers, will be completed by the end of April, court administrators say. That's the last construction phase for the new courthouse, which first opened to the public in late 2005.

Of course, by then, the courthouse will be at capacity, say judges - who have been lobbying county and state officials to start thinking about funding to build an additional new courthouse next door.