Thursday, June 4, 1998 | 9:54 a.m.
The legislative subcommittee examining Family Court will recommend that the Legislature approve adding five judges to the beleaguered court to ease staggering caseloads.
At Wednesday's fifth and final subcommittee hearing, Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said Washoe Family Court judges handle 2,000 cases each, compared to their counterparts in Clark County who each handle 4,274 cases annually.
There was a discussion on whether the number of judges to be recommended to the full Legislature should be three or five. But as Assemblywoman Ellen Koivisto, D-Las Vegas, said, "We may have to ask for five to get three."
After the hearing, District Court Administrator Chuck Short said adding judges is a matter of providing equal justice and improving the human support infrastructure in the face of the Las Vegas Valley's explosive growth.
"People get less time in the courts here than in other parts of the state," he said.
Buckley, subcommittee chairwoman, said a bill to add three Family Court judges was defeated in the 1997 Legislature because of concerns about problems within the court, infighting among judges and the length of time to process cases.
The subcommittee on Wednesday adopted nine other recommendations it will propose to the Legislature or encourage the court itself to enact. All were aimed at increasing the court's accountability, efficiency and timeliness in making decisions, as well as ensuring equal access to the court and that "children's voices are heard."
Adding judges is only one part of the solution to increase accountability, Short said. There also is a need for greater accountability from lawyers and litigants.
According to Short, the eight Family Court judges support the need for accountability, but some view the subcommittee's recommendations as the legislative branch "dictating" to the judicial branch.
At the start of Wednesday's hearing, which was delayed for more than an hour because of a lack of a quorum, the subcommittee spoke briefly about abolishing Family Court -- an issue raised during the last legislative session but not voted on.
Subcommittee members said they would rather see the court be reformed than dismantled.
"It ignores why it (the court) was formed," Buckley said.
Among the subcommittee's major recommendations are voluntary rotation of judges in and out of Family Court to ease caseload burdens and burnout; a strong chief-judge system to ensure that procedures are uniform and to address grievances; and provisions to improve access to the court for those who can't afford an attorney. The number of litigants who represent themselves is estimated at 44 percent and rising.
Some subcommittee members expressed concerns about rotating judges, saying that the eight elected Family Court members should remain there and not be assigned to hear civil or criminal cases. Those holding this view said the chief judge should temporarily assign other judges to Family Court to handle cases as needed. However, state law would have to be changed to permit voluntary rotation.
Koivisto said she feared people would run for Family Court when they really want to be in District Court.
Throughout the hearings, the subcommittee received many complaints about the Family Mediation and Assessment Center (FMAC). Because of burgeoning caseloads, the agency now focuses only on mediation, and it outsources case assessments to private agencies.
The subcommittee's staff had recommended that the court create a mechanism whereby FMAC could conduct assessments for indigent families who can't pay private agency fees. Assemblywoman Sandra Tiffany, R-Las Vegas, said she was uncomfortable with that, adding that the County Commission should decide who would pay for assessments.
"If the court is outsourcing assessments, someone could be hurt because they can't pay," Buckley said.
However, she also noted that judges rely too much on assessments, which only delays decisions in child-custody cases. The court should be encouraged to move more quickly to mediation and early settlement of cases, she said.
The 1997 Legislature approved a bill mandating mediation in child-custody cases.
"I heard a disturbing rumor that ... some attorneys are completely ignoring it (mandatory mediation) and are trying to jump right into court," Buckley said.
The purpose of mediation is to cut down on the high costs of litigation and attorneys' fees, she said.
Attorney Bob Dickerson, a member of the subcommittee advisory staff and president of the Nevada Bar Association, said many lawyers aren't used to mediation because it's still a new concept.
The subcommittee agreed to make no recommendation to the Legislature on assessments, but it later will ask for a report on how the new system is working.
The subcommittee did urge more funding for guardian ad litems and court-appointed special advocates for children in custody cases.
However, Sen. Jon Porter, R-Boulder City, said he feared the request "would fall on deaf ears."
"The lack of funding is symptomatic of a far greater problem -- the lack of coordination of different groups and child-advocacy programs," he said.
There was some discussion on where the funding would come from -- either through legislative money committees or dedicated sources such as increased court-user fees. No recommendation was made on how these programs would be funded.
As a way of monitoring judicial caseloads and increasing accountability, the subcommittee recommended that the Nevada Revised Statutes be amended to require the chief judges of the Washoe and Clark County district courts to submit a written report to the Legislative Counsel Bureau each month. The reports, which are now submitted monthly to the Supreme Court, detail the number and type of cases assigned to, considered by and decided by each district judge, and the number of full judicial days each judge appeared in court or in chambers to perform judicial duties.
One staff member pointed out that compiling the report for 27 departments "goes way beyond the need" because it's merely kept in a file for a year and then shredded.
Tiffany disagreed.
"This is at the heart of what we're trying to do for accountability," she said. "I'd put this on the Internet if it were up to me."
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