Nevada courts see more than 384,000 cases in year

Nevada’s Supreme Court and Appellate Court had a total of 2,935 case filings in fiscal 2018 and, according to its annual report, disposed of 2,695 of those cases.

The seven members of the Supreme Court handled 1,613 of them referring the remaining 1,322 to the three members of the Intermediate Court of Appeals.

But the two courts still have 2,201 pending cases before them and 1,776 of those are in the Supreme Court.

The high court issued 104 opinions during the year; the appellate court just eight. Under the rules, the Supreme Court receives all filed cases and decides which of them to “push down” to the appellate court.

Nevada’s trial courts — district, justice and municipal courts — are divided into 11 judicial districts. The 44-page annual report says there were a total of 384,453 cases filed in those courts during fiscal 2018.

Altogether, 98 percent of them were resolved during the year.

The vast majority were in Clark County’s Eighth Judicial District where 289,088 of those cases were filed. The county’s 52 district judges handled 105,699 of the total.

In the First Judicial District comprised of Carson City and Storey County there were 8,316 cases filed. But most — 5,856 — were filed in Justice Court. District Court Judges Todd Russell and James Wilson handled 2,460 cases, disposing of 1,987 of them. Just 284 of those were felony criminal cases. Those totals don’t include the more than 13,000 traffic and parking cases handled by the district and justice courts.

In Douglas County’s Ninth Judicial District, the caseload was just 4,454 in fiscal 2018. Just 1,179 of them went to District Court Judges Thomas Gregory and Nathan Young with the rest being handled by the county’s two justice courts. Those courts also handled the vast majority of the 9,701 traffic and parking cases.

In Lyon County’s Third Judicial District, District Judges Leon Aberasturi and John Schlegelmilch handled 1,604 of the 5,904 cases filed there. The rest were disposed of in Lyon’s three justice and two municipal courts. There were also 10,506 traffic and parking cases, only 221 of which went to district court.

Churchill County’s 10th Judicial District reported 3,806 cases plus another 5,602 traffic and parking cases. District handled 1,827 of them including 135 criminal cases. The rest were disposed of in the New River Justice and Fallon Municipal courts.

Washoe County courts handled 54,572 cases during the year. The Second Judicial District’s 15 judges processed 19,159 cases including 2,281 criminal actions. The four justice and two municipal courts handled the rest. There were also 53,256 traffic and parking cases. Wadsworth Justice Court was the least busy Washoe court with just 65 cases during the year.