Proposed business court plan heads for September OK

CARSON CITY -- A proposal to create a Clark County District Court division that would quickly resolve disputes between businesses could get a final OK in September.

The plan, which was aired Wednesday before the Nevada Supreme Court, is expected to formally be approved in September.

Chief Justice Bob Rose told District Judge Michael Douglas after the 30-minute hearing Wednesday that the justices are "favorably inclined toward the concept."

Douglas said the business community and some legislators want a specialized business component "to swiftly resolve with some uniformity" disputes among companies. Industrial development officials have been pushing for this specialization as part of an effort to lure new companies to Nevada.

Delaware, which serves as a model for some business law, has a full-fledged Business Court.

The temporary plan for Southern Nevada, to be effective in January, calls for business cases to be assigned to two district judges. Typical cases would include trademark suits, shareholder disputes and litigation pitting two companies against each other.

Litigation on personal injury, product liability, wrongful firing, landlord-tenant disputes and a consumer against a business would not fall in this category.

Justice Miriam Shearing said she was concerned the business judges would not handle as great a load as other judges. She said the caseload should be adjusted so it "would not be inequitable." Douglas said the two judges would "pick up the overflow" from other courts.

A legislative subcommittee headed by Sen. Mark James, R-Las Vegas, has voted to draft a proposed constitutional amendment to create a full-fledged Business Court system in Nevada. But that would take five years.

In the meantime, the plan presented before the Supreme Court would have the chief judge of District Court in Clark County appoint two of the 19 judges to hear business cases.

The overall plan also calls for closer tracking of litigation to make sure judges keep up to date. A committee of judges would look at judges' backlogs to determine if they were due to "inactivity, neglect or inadequate management."

Judges found responsible for their own backlogs could face corrective action. The chief judge could curtail the time spent away from the court by the judge or require attendance at case-management educational courses. The chief judge could also stop any expenses sought to be incurred by the judge that didn't have to do with closing cases.

Douglas said the district judges voted 13-1 for the plan with two abstaining.

It would end the 3-year old system in which one judge acts as the chief judge, 10 hear only civil cases, seven hear criminal cases and one presides over Drug Court.

The new alignment retains the chief judge and Drug Court judge, but has 14 judges assigned to both criminal and civil cases, two to business cases and one to civil cases.

Douglas said the 2001 Legislature will be asked to fund two more District Court judges.

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