vegasinc.com | february 7-13, 2016
The appeal of a new court ANALYSIS
Adding a layer to the state judiciary has eased the burden on the Supreme Court
By David Davis Special to VEGAS INC
In 2015, Nevada implemented a long overdue judicial reform it had been trying to put in place for more than 40 years: the intermediate Court of Appeals. Voters had previously rejected proposals for a Court of Appeals four times since 1972. This meant all appeals went directly to the Nevada Supreme Court, which was forced to grow to accommodate the increasing caseload from its original three justices to seven justices by 1997. The court also implemented a series of changes to speed up the processing of cases, including fast-track procedures and splitting the court into two three-justice panels to hear the majority of cases. But by 2014, that still wasn’t enough, and the court had a backlog of 1,985 pending cases, more than any other state supreme court, and its annual influx of cases was more than three times the American Bar Association’s recommended amount for a court of its size. court of a ppe als , Con tinue d on page 15
SHUTTERSTOCK
498
Number of oil rigs in the United States during the week of Jan. 25, a decrease of 12. It’s the biggest drop since March 2010, when the count fell by 18 to 619.
6.2%
Percentage increase of Nevada’s taxable sales in November, the equivalent of $4.2 billion, up from $3.97 billion in November of 2014.