Furniture for new Supreme Court justices to cost $44,000

Justice Deborah Agosti, who took over the Carson City office of retired Justice Charles Springer, needed $600 to buy the desk she used as a Washoe County district judge. The rest of her furniture was left by Springer.

"I would not call it extravagant," said Court Administrator Karen Kavanau about the furniture purchases for Becker and Leavitt. "It is the Supreme Court."

Kavanau said the furniture bought for Becker and Leavitt was for the justices, their secretaries and four law clerks

Justices came under fire in 1992 for spending $700 each for Chippendale chairs.

Kavanau said chairs bought for clerks of Becker and Leavitt cost about $600 each. Desk modules for the clerks ran $4,000 each.

Costs of furnishings just for the justices were $8,000 to $10,000 each, Kavanau said.

She said Becker's furniture costs will be slightly higher than those of Leavitt, who is bringing one of his own desks to his new office.

The office of the court in Las Vegas needed the new furniture because Becker and Leavitt primarily will work out of that building.

The court expanded this week to seven members, up from five members, as part of a move to help reduce its load of more than 2,000 cases.

Many cases will be decided by three-justice panels, one meeting in Carson City, the other in Las Vegas. Membership in the panels will be changed every six months, and each justice will serve in both parts of the state.

Becker and Levitt also will be working at least a week a month in Carson City as they confer with other justices on decisions.

Kavanau said neither requested additional furniture for the offices in the court building in Carson City.

They will take over offices that had been used occasionally by visiting judges.

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