- law dawg
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Judicial candidate filing closes on Friday. As of this post, only 5 of the 58 seats on the Eighth Judicial District Court bench are contested and no one is challenging for the Supreme Court seats. Will more challengers show up or will the majority of judges be retained without contest? For all things candidate filing in Clark County go here. The Judicial Candidate filing guide is here. You can see who has filed in Clark County here. You can find about filing for statewide judicial positions and who else has filed for those here.
I think we’ve finally hit that point where the cons of running for and being a judge outweigh the pros and most of the bar knows it.
I agee with this. The salary alone well…it is decent for some but at ten years + experience, most should be earning that much or more. Then the costs of running, well come right off that salary. OR, spend your time instead wooing every organization in existence to try and get that sweet contribution. What is your time worth?
You forget that some people enjoy the game, the rubber chicken dinners, the breakfasts with obscure civic affinity groups. You might think an event like the “Flanders Society 51st Annual Southpaw Breakfast Crepery,” sounds dreadful, but others genuinely enjoy yuck-iddly-upping at this kinds of events.
Now I want crepes.
Friday will be bonkers. There are plenty of people who want to be a judge.
Anyone serious, versus the nuisance candidates, file first or second day certainly the first week. And that after weeks or months of getting support behind the scenes.
Friday filings are purely nuisance.
Dept S should have an additional candidate
How is no one running against Department T?
Its unfortunate. Most of the bar also knows we could use a better bunch but not many up for even trying.
Because so many desirable candidates have run and lost.
Remember that the real “perk” of a government job is the retirement. That comes after 30 years. 30 years!!! So if you’re a private attorney and become a judge at 10 years of practice, you’ll have to spend 30 years on the bench to get the retirement. That’s a 40 year practice. That’s a long time. This is why government attorneys have a huge advantage — they work for the government for 10 years then transfer over to the bench. Retirement Benefits transfer. They work another 20 years and they’re done.
It’s why the majority of the bench is former government. For civil attorneys making the transition, they lose money and there golden handcuffs start from the day they take the bench versus the day they started practicing.
This analysis is not correct. Judicial PERS and regular PERS have some differences. The system has changed over the years. It’s too much to go into here – https://www.nvpers.org/faq/jrs
Plus you don’t have to put in 30 years. 30 years is the max retirement amount (33 years after the 2015 changes), but it’s not like you get nothing if you spend 15-20 years in PERS. Sure that might not be enough to live on by itself, but if you run after 10-15 years of private practice you should have some assets and savings going for yourself.
It seems like the best time to run for judge is around 45-50. You can be a judge long enough to get at least partial vesting in pers, you should have a decent amount saved up for retirement, and you could still step off the bench and make some of that sweet, sweet mediator money. If I wanted to be judge, that’s how I would do it. 2 terms. Do a great job as a judge, treat everyone with respect and then cash in as a mediator.
Friday will be crazy because I know quite a few people sitting on the sidelines waiting to see who lines up where before choosing their seat. There will be shuffling right up until filing closes. For example I heard Cynthia Cruz was running for District Court but has not yet picked which race.
Dept. 23 worries me. Not a Martina Bauhaus fan.
I am not a Lilly-Spells fan but certainly prefer her to Bauhaus. Not a surprise that the LVMPD attorney with a name starting with “B” is being pitted against Ballou’s neighbor from the PD’s Office
I have had minimal interaction with Bauhas but she has always helped me with issues with the jail. She has my vote over Lilly-Spells
Respectfully disagree on this one. Lilly-Spells is a struggle to appear in front of. I don’t know Bauhaus that well, but we’ve given Lilly-Spells five years on the bench and her learning curve appears pretty flat.
Not what a judge should be. Lilly-Spells seems nice but without grasping legal concepts.
Tried to post the booking photo of Lilly-Spellls. That is what I meant with what a judge should not do, I.e. get arrested
Statistics for district court case distribution (assigned cases per year) has been disclosed (and is now made available to the judges anytime they want). Let’s just say, there are a lot of judges who are pissed at their caseload compared to other departments. Major fights brewing.
Spill. Is this something accessible to everyone?
Yes please, how does one go about accessing this information?
Not accessible to public. Ask your judge friends! Unless they’re 1 or 21.
21 is the Presiding Civil which often gets a lighter load to handle the administrative load
What administrative load? Once in three month meetings (that could have been an email)?
Judge Sturman — She announced her retirement and i saw on NV Bar site the Eighth JD is accepting applications. So will that candidate need to go through the rigmarole of applying and then turn around and run a re-election?
Ideally an applicant for appointment would also file to run in that department now to show they’re serious. But yes, the appointment is only until the end of the year and the seat is up for election so you would have to run.
Hence, Danielle switching departments.
Where can we see who is applying for Dept 26?
reading comprehension these days, sheesh. There’s a hyperlink above that says who has filed in Clark County. Go to that site and select 2026 and it will show everyone who has filed so far.
I think they meant who has applied for the appointment.
I’m surprised at the low numbers of filings given the large pay raise that was pushed through the legislature. District court went from starting in the 160s to now they will start at $225,000. Hopefully some better candidates will be filing on Friday.
I don’t think that’s accurate at all based on how the statute reads. But even if it were true, State positions get a metric ton of money taken off the top for PERS. my understanding is that the justice court judges and muni court judges have by far the best setup. Higher pay and little to no PERS contributions. Plus you get those sweet city or county benefits as opposed to the bottom-tier State benefits.
Actually, with the new District Court raises, Justice Court is now the lowest paid judicial position in Las Vegas.
Muni and District Court are both higher pay.
I’m a middling attorney with average skills. I make $250-$300 a year. They need to start at $300k to get the real talent (which I am not).
Nooooo! Daniel Hooge has filed for Dept. 26. Please, please, please no.
Absolutely terrible.
Terrible. He does not have a judicial temperment. HIs practice was in Lincoln County Criminal.
Specifically why do you think he lacks judicial temperment?
His problem is that at times, he legitimately lacks the ability to see proportionality. Take a look at the Justin Jones case for example. Compare what he sought versus what he got.
I genuinely wonder how fair he will be to women attorneys. I do not believe he was at all fair to Dee Sull.
“A judge must be disqualified if they actually harbor bias or prejudice toward a party, lawyer, or the case itself.” Is this a disqualifying bias?
Another
My guess is that a decent number of district court judges who are filing would have retired except for the new pay raises. My bet is that they maximize their retirement benefits at 3 years and then prematurely end their terms. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Michelle Leavitt, Joe Hardy, Tim Williams, Mary Kay Holthus, Eric Johnson, Susan Johnson, Kathleen Delaney, Joanna Kishner and/or Christy Craig resign mid-term.
Can someone please challenge Delaney? Can we get that going?
Hardy isn’t going anywhere. He’s still young and is going to pile on the PERS for at least two more terms if retained.
Why wouldn’t he? its an easy job when you just don’t make decisions ever.
Sorry, best I can do is a serious challenger to Kishner. Be grateful for that.
Agree 100%. In 2030, the Governor is going to be very busy with appointments.
Just think, there are 4th year line prosecutors who are gonna fill these slots.
Joanna Kishner can’t resign midterm if she doesn’t win. The only thing she has going for her is that Jessica Peterson is taking the heat off her in the RJ’s campaign to bludgeon the low ranked judges.
What does it say about these jobs and they pay that there are 6 applicants for 2 Henderson justice court seats? Meanwhile, the majority of district judges are unopposed.
out of the 31 seats open, only eight (8) are contested. That seems like a failure of democracy.
THIS…IS DEMOCRACY…MANIFEST.
Take my upvote and this succulent chinese meal!
Even at $225k it doesn’t pay enough. That’s why you’ve got unopposed candidates and a disproportionate number of candidates coming from government jobs which pay even worse than a district court judge. I looked up some of the salaries of these DA’s running… oof.
Not too complicated, the Justice Courts pay more, have better benefits, less workload, and fewer hours. District Court compensation packages don’t even compare.
not anymore, the district court judges are getting a large raise next year. There is a reason some of the justice court judges are now running for district court.
That’s my understanding as well. Justice Court will be the lowest paid judicial position in Las Vegas.
Where’s the flood of candidates we were promised for today? only 2 filings today. Jessica Goodey trying for DC and Alex Quagge withdrew from a race with multiple entries to run against Jacob Reynolds. Only 10 of the 58 spots are contested as of 2:30 pm.
Thank you Jessica Goodey! Dept 26 situation was looking dire.
I wonder how he finally settled on Jacob. Good luck buddy.
Judge Wiese drew an opponent. Anyone ever heard of Joshua M. Santeramo?
Judge Wiese is one of the few judges/candidates I would cut a check to. It’s unfortunate he drew an opponent.
Isn’t he Patty Doyle’s husband?
Who is Patty Doyle?
Why? He does nothing as far as adjudicating cases
How did Colleeen Brown get a free pass??? Open seat and only she filed yet people are running against incumbents.