Family cases down in Douglas District Court

Staff Reports

The number of family cases filed in the Ninth Judicial District, which covers Douglas County dropped from 857 to 807 in 2005, according to figures released by the Nevada Supreme Court in its Annual Report of the Nevada Judiciary.

Criminal cases increased by nine over the same period from 138 to 147 and 20 more civil cases were filed in district court, from 400 to 420.

Nontraffic juvenile cases decreased substantially from 369 in 2004 to 260 in 2005.

The figures cover the court's fiscal year which ended on June 30.

Douglas County's two district judges, David Gamble and Michael Gibbons, cleared a substantial increase in civil cases this year as opposed to last year, with 281 civil cases disposed in 2004 and 408 in 2005.

The number of criminal cases disposed in the same periods rose slightly from 114 to 129.

The number of family cases, which accounts for much of the court's workload, was stable with 773 cleared in 2005 and 774 cleared in 2004.

Douglas County's judges had the seventh highest caseload in the state with 817 nontraffic cases filed per judge. However, the fourth-highest caseload, covering Carson City and Storey County, was 1,342 per judge.

Elko County came in sixth with 1,305 per judge. Top of the list was Clark County with 2,726 cases per judge.

Bottom of the list was the Seventh Judicial District covering Eureka, Lincoln and White Pine counties, with 359 cases per judge.

According to the Nevada Judiciary Annual Report, the number of criminal cases filed climbed to 992 from 941 over two years and the number of civil cases jumped from 831 in 2004 to 955 in 2005. The number of criminal cases disposed remained high during the two-year period with 1,384 cases disposed in 2004 and 1,355 disposed in 2005.

The number of civil cases disposed dropped from 705 in 2004 to 535 in 2005.

In all, the number of traffic and parking violations heard in East Fork Justice Court dropped from 6,380 in 2004 to 5,478 in 2005.

Douglas County sent 35 people to Western Nevada Regional Drug Court in fiscal year 2005 and had 41 active cases at the end of the year.