Editorial: Add credibility to the bench

Thursday, Jan. 18, 2007 | 7:07 a.m.

L ast year the Los Angeles Times wrote a series of stories that depicted Nevada's judiciary as a network of good old boys who regularly neglected to mention when attorneys who had cases before them had given to their campaigns.

While the series painted the system with an overly broad brush, it still left the judiciary with a deserved black eye.

Former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Bob Rose created a blue ribbon commission before he retired last year to recommend changes to improve the judiciary. The judiciary, a separate branch of government, for the most part writes its own rules.

The Legislature, however, has the chance to help reform the judiciary this session and should make a strong statement by approving measures to bring more accountability and transparency into the state's courthouses.

Lawmakers need to address a key issue raised in the Times' series - a lack of disclosure among judges as far as campaign contributions and relationships with attorneys who practice in front of them. The Legislature needs to strengthen campaign finance laws to require that candidates disclose more information about donors, such as the donors' employers and previous donations given, and require that the information be put on a searchable Web site to give the public the most access possible. For that matter, the same should be done with all other elected officials' annual financial statements that show potential conflicts.

The Legislature should put more teeth into the law by increasing fines for people who don't file on time and for elected officials who fail to disclose a conflict.

Lawmakers should also beef up the Commission on Judicial Discipline, which investigates complaints of judicial misconduct, by adding investigators to the office. The commission's staff is made up of one office worker and an executive director, who also serves as the executive director of the Committee on Judicial Ethics and Election Practices. Many cases have been dragged out because the commission doesn't have the proper staffing to quickly investigate them.

There are other changes to the judiciary that the Legislature needs to approve, including:

While all of these changes may sound like a lot, they make up an achievable list for the Legislature and they would go a long way toward improving the judiciary.