First state judicial report shows more than 325,000 cases last year

Promising more detailed data over the next couple of years, the Nevada Supreme Court presented Wednesday its first Annual Report of the Nevada Judiciary.

The report showed 325,648 non-traffic cases in fiscal 1999-2000.

Chief Justice Bob Rose said this is the first time the state's 91 district, justice and municipal courts have been able to provide statistical information on what they are doing.

"These statistics show how the Nevada courts are handling the public's business," he said.

In addition, the state's justice and municipal courts handled 659,629 traffic and parking cases.

Rose and Administrative Office of the Courts Administrator Karen Kavanau said this is the first step in building a uniform system that will eventually track cases and the status of pending cases for civil, criminal, family and juvenile court actions.

That process was started after the 1995 Legislature complained about the lack of reliable, accurate and uniform data on Nevada's courts.

This year's statistics show there were 158,299 criminal cases filed in Nevada and 107,369 civil actions. A total of 41,363 family and 18,617 juvenile cases complete the totals.

A total of 1,661 of those cases were appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court.

Overall, the percentage of cases handled in each judicial district came reasonably close to matching the population of that district.

Clark County courts handled 67 percent of the total - 63,578 cases - and Washoe courts had 15,100, another 16 percent.

In Carson City, the criminal caseload was 334. But with all other cases added in, a total of 3,200 cases went through Carson's district and justice courts last year.

Douglas County had a total of 1,721 cases handled by its two judges, including 122 criminal cases.

Lyon County reported 2 percent of the statewide total - 2,334 cases including 221 criminal actions.