Gates implements plan to get more cases to trial

Chief District Judge Lee Gates announced today that he is flexing his new muscle as the state's first strong chief judge by implementing a system designed to get more cases to trial.

In a memo sent out Friday to his fellow judges, Gates said he is going forward with an overflow-trial system that a majority of district judges rejected but was mandated by the Nevada Supreme Court.

The overflow system will allow judges whose scheduled cases were plea bargained or settled to be assigned trials from other courts.

The idea is to provide some relief for the judges who specialize in the time-intensive civil cases and who, all the judges agree, are overworked when compared with the judges who handle criminal cases.

It should also make cases go to trial quicker because delays caused by the unavailability of a judge will be reduced.

Until the state Supreme Court instituted the strong chief judge system last month, judges had always operated as independent officials and handled their caseloads as they saw fit, responsible only to the voters. The chief judge's role was primarily to assign cases, but there was no supervisory authority.

The high court pushed for reforms for the past few years, but the district judges have been unable to agree on many of the changes sought, including the institution of the strong chief judge and an overflow-trial system.

A committee of judges earlier this year had recommended a rule that any judge should take any type of overflow trial that needs to go before a jury. But a full vote of the judges resulted in a watered-down version that did not require criminal judges to take overflow civil cases.

The Supreme Court, however, endorsed the committee version and issued an order last month giving the judges until mid-August to submit a new proposal that incorporates a full overflow plan.

Although that has not yet been done, Gates said he is going ahead with what the Supreme Court has directed. He noted the Nevada Legislature also passed a law that went into effect July 1 authorizing a strong chief judge to assign overflow cases.

The civil judges, at a June 28 meeting, voted unanimously to do their part by sending their extra trials to Gates for reassignment.

"This is a tremendous step forward for the public," District Judge Mark Gibbons, who is the presiding civil district judge, said. "Now, if cases are ready to go, in all probability they will go.

"The delay games are over," Gibbons said.

He noted that the overflow system initially will focus on current cases, but the civil judges will quickly be looking to accelerate the trial dates for cases presently set to go before juries in 2001 and 2002.

"Right now, the majority of judges just want to get the system up and operating," Gibbons said.

In his memo to the district judges, Gates reminded them the Supreme Court has decided that when judges are not presiding over trials of their own, they must accept "overflow cases of any type or description the chief judge might assign to her or him."

"In order to comply with the new law and the Supreme Court mandate, I am implementing a new case overflow system," Gates' memo said.

Judges will have to inform Gates by 3 p.m. on the first day of the week whether they are available for extra work.

Gibbons said the cases sent by the civil judges into the overflow system will be jury trials that will require no more than four days to conclude.

"Most of them will be slip-and-fall and auto accident cases," he said, noting that the disposal of those cases will free up time for civil judges to focus on more complicated cases.

Gates pointed out in his memo that statistics will be kept on the overflow trials handled by the various departments.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Bob Rose admitted to the Legislature early this year that some judges in Clark County weren't carrying their weight.

A committee of judges, in response, recommended a variety of rules that would limit judges' vacations, require a regular presence in the courthouse and make judges help out by taking overflow trials.

But the majority of judges at a full meeting voted to water down the rules to a point where accountability was minimal. There were no limits on vacation days, and as long as judges had telephones, they wouldn't be required to be in the courthouse or even in the state except to attend hearings and trials.

The judges did agree with a strong chief judge system but with restrictions that would have reduced that authority.

On June 11 the Supreme Court filed an order demanding new recommendations that had to include requirements that judges spend workdays at the courthouse, take overflow trials and clear vacations with the chief judge.

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