Nevada Supreme Court about to hit 60,000-case milestone

By Conor Shine

Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011 | 2 a.m.

Cases continue to pile up at a record rate for the Nevada Supreme Court as the court clerk’s office prepares to accept its 60,000 case filing.

It took more than 100 years for the first 10,000 cases to be filled with the Supreme Court, which serves as the state’s lone appellate court. But as the state’s population boomed, so did the number of cases being appealed.

Forty-thousand cases were filed between 1977 and August 2007 with the court, including 10,000 in a five-year span between 2002 and 2007.

The state has received nearly 10,000 more cases in the last 4 1/2 years and expects to receive its 60,000 filing in early 2012.

The court has expanded to help deal with the increased case load and now has seven members after adding two justices to its original roster of three in 1967, and another two in 1999.

Chief Justice Nancy Saitta said in a statement that the case filing milestone is indicative of a larger issue.

“Not only is the Supreme Court being asked today to handle more cases, but the cases coming to the high court are increasingly complex and require more of our time,” Saitta said. “During recent years, the Supreme Court has also been asked to rule on an expedited basis on such vital matters as election and tax disputes. This is a vital function of the Supreme Court, but takes attention away from other cases and delays their timely resolution.”

Nevada is one of 11 states without an intermediate appellate court, according to the Supreme Court’s public information office. A proposal to create an intermediate appellate court through a constitutional amendment was rejected by voters in 2010.