High court wants to put appeals court on hold

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court, seeking a 42 percent increase in its budget, wants to temporarily shelve its long-held support for creation of an intermediate court of appeals.

The court was expanded from five to seven members starting this month, and Chief Justice Bob Rose said Monday it wants to see if the new system can handle the growing number of appeals, which are rising 12.5 percent a year.

The 1997 Legislature laid the groundwork for a constitutional amendment to go before voters in 2000 to establish an intermediate appeals court. Rose said he wants the issue comes before the voters in 2002. That would allow the high court to determine whether its new three-judge panels will cut the appeals backlog.

"We can hold the line for five years," Rose told the legislative budget panels. "But we would not want it to go seven or nine years."

The expansion of the court from five to seven members, approved by the 1997 Legislature, was supposed to be a temporary measure until creation of the intermediate courts.

The court is seeking an increase in its biennial budget from $12.2 million to $17.3 million for 1999-2001 and an increase in staff from 76 to 91 positions.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said the court was enlarged with the promise that it would be more cost effective. Given the boost in the court's budget request, he questioned if that had been accomplished.

Rose said an intermediate court would cost $4 million to $5 million, which is more costly than the court's expansion.

The chief justice said the added staff two years ago helped reduce the backlog of cases from 2,600 to 2,200. He wants more staff attorneys plus a specialist to help district judges deal with death penalty cases. Hopefully they could avoid costly mistakes," Rose said.

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