Yesterday, the Nevada Supreme Court officially created a Commission to Study the Adjudication of Business Law Cases. I previously covered the Supreme Court’s proposal here and submitted a letter in support of the proposal.
The order creating the Commission contemplates a continuing public process. It provides that the Commission “shall conduct all hearings in public and post all meeting minutes and documents considered by the Commission on the Supreme Court’s website.”
At present, I have not been able to find a page set up specifically for the Commission on the Supreme Court’s website. Of course, much of Nevada’s state government has been struggling in recent weeks because of a large-scale cyber attack on Nevada systems–including the judiciary. The Supreme Court might also simply opt to continue to use the existing administrative docket. Or we could see something show up in the near future.
There are some changes from the Petition. The Petition identified 21 proposed members. The final order expands to 24 members, adding: (1) “Judge” as a Rural Representative; (2) “Attorney” as a Rural Representative; and (3) Virginia Valentine as a representative of the Nevada Resort Association.
Historically, it has been difficult to observe the operation of Nevada’s existing business courts. For example, the courts in Washoe County and the courts in Clark County now use different filing systems.
But we may have more data soon. As part of a larger project, I’ve begun to attempt to pull together data about Nevada courts and business court practice. The current system for Clark County does allow case searches by bar number and that has given me a way to identify how often particular attorneys show up in Clark County cases. Unsurprisingly, my rough statistics show that the Southern Nevada Attorneys with a business litigation practice have substantial experience.
| Southern Nevada Attorney | Total Clark County Appearances Since 9/1/2015 | Clark County Business Court Cases Since 9/1/2015 |
| Mark Ferrario | 196 | 77 |
| Colby Williams | 76 | 47 |
| Erika Turner | 126 | 69 |
| Tammy Peterson | 54 | 24 |
| Michael Feder | 53 | 25 |