Las Vegas, October 29, 2001 - So many construction defect lawsuits have been filed
in the past three years that the Clark County District Court is bringing
in extra judges and renting additional courtrooms.
About 150 such cases have been filed since 1998, and five to 10 more
lawsuits are filed each month, Court Administrator Chuck Short said.
The reason for the large number of construction defect lawsuits has
been blamed on contractors unfamiliar with weather, soil and other
problems here, a lack of a skilled work force, or builders unwilling to
stand behind their product. Others blame trial lawyers and say state law
encourages homeowners to sue rather than work with builders to fix
defects.
"Defects follow volume," said Thomas E. Miller a Newport Beach,
Calif.-based lawyer and author of a book on consumer construction
defects. Miller, whose firm has represented homeowners, said builders
have repeated the pattern of building defective homes in areas of rapid
growth, such as Southern California and Phoenix.
The case load poses a problem for fast-growing Clark County where
about 20,000 homes are built each year, not only because of the number
of people involved, but because of the number of motions that are filed
and the length of time it takes to try such cases.
It isn't unusual for a judge to hear 50 to 100 motions during a
single pretrial hearing, and the trials themselves take three to five
months, Short told the Las Vegas Sun for a report in Monday's editions.
"They account for only 1 percent of our filings, and yet they are
taking 20 (percent) to 30 percent of the judges' times in certain
departments over the course of a year," Short said.
The problem was exacerbated earlier this year when the Legislature
passed a bill requiring judges to try such cases before all other civil
trials. About 30,000 civil cases of all kinds are pending in District
Court.
Although 14 judges handle civil cases on a rotating basis, the
defendants, experts and defense attorneys in each case tend to be the
same. As a result, only two trials can be held at a time, Short said.
And even holding two trials at once is difficult, because the Clark
County Court House doesn't have space for cases that can involve 20
attorneys and hundreds of plaintiffs, Short said.
In one upcoming case against developer Del Webb, for example, 6,000
plaintiffs are suing one contractor and dozens of subcontractors, Short
said. That doesn't count the multitude of experts who will be called
during the trial.
There is not enough room in the courtroom and there's little space
outside the courtroom for waiting witnesses.
A group of judges has obtained the permission of the Nevada Supreme
Court to bring in visiting and semiretired judges to help judges who are
hearing construction defect cases.
While judges are hearing construction defect cases, visiting judges
will preside over routine matters in other cases, Short said.
The county also is negotiating with the federal government to rent
courtrooms at the Foley Federal Building for one year, said Rick Loop,
assistant court administrator.
District Judge Michael Douglas is the first district judge to preside
over a jury trial in which the contractors and subcontractors were tried
at once.
He spent four months hearing a case that was supposed to last six to
eight weeks.
Had 40 homeowners and several subcontractors not reached a
settlement, it would have lasted even longer, Douglas said. By the end
of the trial, there were 91 plaintiffs, one contractor, 14
subcontractors and 2,000-plus exhibits.
"If we go along status quo, we'll be buried," Douglas said. "The
citizens won't get the satisfaction of getting their cases heard."
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