Clark County Court Promotes Alternatives to Costly Trials | The Locally Times
Handling over 97,000 cases annually, Nevada's largest court offers three programs—arbitration, mediation, and short trials—to bypass traditional litigation.
## Court Aims to Ease High Caseload with Trial Alternatives The Eighth Judicial District Court, Nevada's largest general jurisdiction trial court, has established three Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) programs to resolve civil disputes outside of a conventional trial. According to court documents, these programs are an alternative to proceedings that can be costly and lengthy. The court's stated goal for the programs is to ensure fair and efficient access to the justice system. This initiative operates within a high-volume legal framework where the court’s 58 elected judges preside over more than 97,000 criminal, civil, family, and juvenile cases each year. ## Three Distinct Programs Available The court offers three forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution, each administered by the court's ADR Office. An Arbitration program provides an adversarial process where a neutral arbitrator considers facts and arguments before rendering a decision, which is typically non-binding. The court also offers Mediation, an informal and non-adversarial process where a neutral mediator helps disputing parties reach a mutually acceptable agreement. Finally, a Short Trial Program provides for expedited civil trials for both jury and non-jury cases, using procedures like discovery restrictions and time limits to control the trial's length. ## Program Administration and Missing Data All ADR programs are managed by the ADR Office, located in the Phoenix Building at 330 S. Third St., #1060. According to the court’s website, the office can be reached by phone at (702) 671-4493 and operates on weekdays. While the court provides descriptions of the ADR programs, public documents on its website do not include performance metrics. The records do not specify the number of cases resolved annually through arbitration, mediation, or the short trial program. Furthermore, the available information does not quantify the average cost or time savings for participants compared to traditional litigation. Data on litigant satisfaction, program success rates, and the annual budget for the ADR Office are not included in the posted materials.