As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Nevada Supreme Court has launched an effort to create “Commission to Study the Adjudication of Business Law.” Nevada will hold a hearing on the Petition to create the Commission tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. This is the order explaining how to participate.

The Petition explains that:

The nature and scope of business law cases require specialized knowledge of complex areas of the law and often result in lengthy times to disposition. Rules and procedures specifically focused on business law cases are necessary to efficiently and effectively adjudicate these cases. The proposed rules provide consistent statewide rules defining the scope and procedures for resolving business cases necessary to ensuring consistent and effective adjudication of business cases. Further, the proposed rules mandate the selection of district court judges, experienced in all aspects of business law, to be dedicated solely to the adjudication of business law matters as defined in the proposed rules. A commission to study the area of business law, including reviewing and making recommendations regarding proposed SCR 254, is necessary to advance the training, education, specialization, timeliness, and efficiency of Nevada’s districts in resolving business law cases.

In essence, the Petition does a two things. First, it asks the Nevada Supreme Court to create a Commission to study the adjudication of business law cases. Second, it asks the proposed Commission to consider a discussion draft of a proposed rule for business courts. Right now, Nevada business court judges handle multiple kinds of dockets at the same time. The proposed rule would, among other things, shift a subset of judges into handling business law matters full time and make other changes to how they are selected from among the pool of judges elected to office.

Notably, everything contemplated by the Petition and Proposed Rule appears to be something the Judiciary may do without the need for a constitutional amendment. Amending Nevada’s constitution takes a long time.

You can access the official docket here. You can find my comment letter there and other letters, but I’ve also uploaded and linked to my letter separately here. This is the official stamped copy in black and white. On occasion, I’ve run into challenges downloading from the website, but you can usually wait a few minutes and click again.

My letter strongly supports the creation of the Commission makes suggestions both for the Commission’s membership and the proposed rule.

One thing to note that isn’t addressed in my letter, the proposed rule would shift the locus for selecting business court judges from among the pool of elected judges away from the Chief Judges of Clark and Washoe Counties and to the Chief Justice of the Nevada Supreme Court with the assistance of a nominating committee. If I were the Chief Judge of a trial court, I might prefer this structure so I wouldn’t have to be the one to select between different judicial colleagues.