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Financial Cases Straining Courts

Clark County Court Administrators say the sagging economy is putting a strain on the local justice system.

With more foreclosures, evictions, and debt problems, the court is seeing a record number of economic-related cases being filed.

It is yet another busy day for civil process server Heather Chamberlain. She is putting a three-day notice to vacate on a house in northwest Las Vegas, the first legal step toward eviction and then foreclosure.

"We have seen a big growth in our summary eviction department," said Norma McMahan with Legal Process Service.

McMahan says the sheer volume of economic-related cases has doubled in the past year, "We are very busy, we are grateful for that, at the same time it is a true reflection of the economy and the effects that it is having on the people here."

Most cases involving foreclosures, evictions and bad credit card debts end up with the clerk of the Las Vegas Justice Court.

"With the economic downturn, the Justice Court has really seen as exponential increase in the number of documents filed. Those relate not just to evictions and foreclosure evictions but also the collection-type suits," said James Vilt. "A lot of people are clearly defaulting on their credit card payments and their creditors are coming after them."

And from there cases ultimately end up in front of a judge like Melissa Saragosa. She says since many financial cases are time sensitive, less pressing cases can sometimes be delayed.

"I think we are trying to increase the number of cases that are put on any particular docket to accommodate the increase in filing for these eviction and foreclosure type actions. However, there are so many spots on a calendar we have to delay some of those cases so we are setting fewer of the other types of cases that don't have that time sensitivity," she said.

So far this year there have been more than 20,000 eviction cases filed with the Las Vegas Justice Court. Justice Court officials say they believe they are just at the beginning of this trend where more financial-related cases are being filed than ever before.