NDOC hasn’t implemented law capping deductions on inmate accounts two weeks after the law went into effect. [Nevada Current]
The NIAA changes eligibility standard for student-athletes to account for the challenges of the pandemic. [Las Vegas Sun]
How the new, expanded federal child tax credit will work. [Nevada Current]
Some of you were already discussing it, but the opening in Las Vegas Justice Court drew 14 applicants. [RJ]
Richard Branson went into space in his own ship ushering in a new era of space travel. [RJ]
It was a big weekend in Vegas with UFC and Garth Brooks hosting major events Saturday night while we experienced the hottest temperatures of the year. Judging from social media, many of you were at one of the two of those…what did you think? How was Allegiant Stadium as a concert venue? How was traffic after both events got out?
Good for Branson. He's not my favorite billionaire, but I love the spirit of adventure, creation, and a risk taking. Bezos next, and Musk all the way to the moon!
The currency of the future is Bitcoin.
Guest
Anonymous
July 12, 2021 5:18 pm
This billionaire space race is just a rip off. Taxpayers are funding a senseless dick measuring contest between billionaire man children while Flint still doesn't have drinkable water and the Gulf is on fire. Stupid stupid stupid
I wasn't aware that the billionaire space race was being funded by government resources. Can you refer to any source of information that would confirm that this is true?
@11:56am – Seems to me that the county tax payers aren't paying for it. It seems to me that the county taxpayers are investing in the Spaceport with the expectation that the they will get a benefit in return that exceeds the amount of money the taxpayers have invested in the Spaceport. Kinda like how Clark County "invested" in the Raider stadium hoping that the money generated by employment, visitors, taxes on casino gambling/rooms, etc, would exceed what we invested in the stadium.
@2:17 Yes and in the meantime Spaceport was built with monopoly money.
Using the stadium example, how many times have cities been screwed by these stadium deals and yet the grift continues. I'm sure the same will happen with Spaceport.
This was and is a no brainer for T or C, New Mexico. It is a shame that the majority of the workforce is living in Las Cruces but the economic benefit is plain and easy to see. They have taken one flight and it was a rousing success. If you told me that Clark County could have SpacePort and technology jobs for $200M in bonds or Allegiant Stadium to accommodate one of thirty two NFL teams for $750M and hot dog vendor jobs, I take the former every time.
Not seeing the connection between the two. They're asking people to conserve around sunset because that's when all solar dies (no sunlight) but it's still friggin hot so there's still a ton of electricity demand. You can put up all the solar you want it would still be the same.
Yeah. Eff you NV Energy. I'm keeping it at 70. I don't care if that squeezes you with higher rates.
Guest
Anonymous
July 12, 2021 6:39 pm
I'm now into week 10 since I e-filed my tax return, with no indication that the IRS will ever stop processing it and issue my refund. I can't get hold of anyone there. Perhaps they are all busily working on issuing the child tax credits?
All e-filed returns are automatically processed through a computer, not really AI, but a filter process. If a return is flagged, an automated form letter is generated. Minimum response time is 30 days but usual response is about 90 days. Not sure, but I believe a human never sees your return until after it is flagged and you respond to the form letter.
Were this any other year but 2021, I would tend to agree. However, the fact is that the IRS is incredibly backlogged. Currently, 35 million returns (20% of the total) are still unprocessed.
Guest
Anonymous
July 12, 2021 8:57 pm
Is it just me, or are 95% of the attorneys on Arbitration Selection Lists plaintiff's attorneys?
Those who successfully represent insurance carriers have a consistent flow of cases billable on an hourly basis. Thus they may often not have as much motivation (as Plaintiff's PI attorneys) to branch out into other legal activities, legal organizations, etc.
But Plaintiff's PI attorneys, even some of the better ones, often encounter cash flow issues as overhead operating expenses on a monthly basis remain huge, while often there are months where not too many cases settle and thus not too much in contingency fees are received during those tough months.
Therefore, plaintiff's PI attorneys have a far greater motivation to be organized, involved, and really aggressive bout issues and legislation affecting their practice. As we see,trial lawyer associations are usually heavily populated with Plaintiff's attorneys.
Also, the competition for cases can be ferocious as many firms specialize in PI, while many other firms seek out such cases whenever they can get 'em.
3:19, yeah, usually they are better at organizing and fighting(on the legislative and other fronts)than the defense attorneys are.
But there are exceptions. Back 15 or 20 years ago, with the so-called capping of medical malpractice judgements, the Plaintiff's Bar was clearly outspent, out-strategized, and the media, and the public in general, from the outset was clearly on the side of the medical community.
There was such a huge influx of funds from the lobbyists and PR firms for the physicians, that the fight was effectively over before it started.
Also, the winning side clearly had the public on their side and the public, and media, largely bought the horrifying narrative–super greedy attorneys are driving your doctors out of town and grossly raising your med. insurance premiums.
3:27 – Agreed. NV voters are too dumb to figure out that taking away their ability to sue their doctors hurts them all. Can't tell you how many times I've had to tell people how sorry I am, but because they don't have financial losses, I can't take their med mal case. And we still have shit doctors in this town.
I don't agree that P-side lawyers are more organized at lobbying than D-side lawyers. It's more that there is no need for D-side lawyers to lobby because their clients – healthcare cos., insurance cos., gaming cos., etc. – do the lobbying for them. P lawyers' individual clients aren't as well organized or deep pocketed, so the lawyers themselves have to do the lobbying.
@3:19 As an arbitrator, a view that I believe many share, is that serving as an arbitrator is sort of a public service, paying it back, yada yada… I can't imagine that anyone does it for the $100/hr, (My mechanic charges more).
4:32–I agree with you, but I also agree with 3;19 and 3:27(both of who you indicate you disagree with).
You are quite correct that the defense side has all those other factions to perform their lobbying for them.
But the other posters are also correct, in their view that to compensate for such dynamic the Plaintiff's attorneys have methods where they effectively stick together as a united front(such as creating trial lawyer associations chiefly composed of plaintiff attorneys.
Guest
Anonymous
July 12, 2021 9:45 pm
The discussion on Friday's blog, about the 14 applicants for the Justice Court vacancy, may have, in general, been a bit too negative in bemoaning the relative lack of quality of the applicants, as a whole.
And that being understood, and it should also understood that one cannot expect the quality that we would have for a District Court, or Appellate, appointment.
So, with those qualifiers in place, I agree with those who observe that this list does not include too many who have high name recognition in the legal community in general, or even the Criminal Law community in particular.
Usually, for any and all judicial appointments, a few names really stand out. Not the case here. The list seems top heavy with relatively young attorneys who believe they deserve and merit a highly sought-after judicial appointment merely because they have served a few short years as a DPD, or ADA, or a few years in private practice handling some criminal cases.
Now, it may be that there are several solid candidates(in terms of ability and experience) but that name recognition remains the problem. We now have thousands of lawyers. One cannot gain substantial name-recognition merely by being a competent lawyer for a few years. Far more is required, such as writing articles for our State Bar and County Bar publications, presenting CLE material, joining legal organizations, joining other prominent and influential organizations in the community, participating in media interviews and broadcasts discussing legal issues(if such opportunities arise or can be created), or a gazillion other possibilities.
But one cannot simply practice law for a few years and become a viable candidate for appointment. On needs to build name-recognition, and build connections and influence, by methods such as those just mentioned.
Or, more bluntly, one needs to network and hustle.
2:45, for someone who feels that other posters have been too harsh about these J.P. applicants, you wind up offering some pretty unflattering observations about the group, not the least of which is that they seem to not only lack name-recognition, but that many of them may lack the quality or quantity of experience to merit being selected.
You concede that the job may not require brilliance and years of private practice, in order to hit the ground running(or at least getting the hang of it pretty quickly), but you seem to put a huge emphasis that they should all pay their dues, and become well-known and accomplished in the legal community, and if not then they don't merit consideration.
I understand this "paying their dues" approach, and I have been guilty of it myself, when seeing someone with 10 or 12 undistinguished years of practice being appointed over someone with three decades of sterling practice.
But a lot more goes into being an effective judge than the question of which applicants were the better lawyers. The skill set of being a solid attorney is largely relevant to some areas of judicial appointment, but not all areas.
Which may explain why some people who we may believe would make real good judges(because they were real good attorneys) sometimes don't pan out, while people who we think won't work out because they were mediocre(or less) as attorneys, turn out to be pleasant surprises once the bench.
I do, however, agree with your point that name-recognition is not the strong suit of this list of applicants. I don't concede that the name-recognition factor is nearly as important a you hold it to be, but yes, not a lot of high profile names jump out at us from this list.
Guest
Anonymous
July 12, 2021 10:07 pm
2:45, and 2:58, yes, usually there are a few really high profile names on most lists of judicial applicants.
And yes, many attorneys will feel they are unable to identify too many high profile names on this list.
But I think it's a better list than some posters here have suggested, and I think we will emerge with a decent JP from this list.
As mentioned, super intellectual heft is not the issue. This is a J.P. seat. Fairness, calendar control, a sense of proportionality, a reasonable understanding of human nature and motivations(i.e. perception), and decent Crim. Law experience, will serve the new judge well.
It's not Nuclear Physics, so relax.
The seat will probably be filled without Western Jurisprudence collapsing.
Guest
Anonymous
July 12, 2021 10:08 pm
3:07-Actually, there is a name or two on that list that may bring very little honor to Western Jurisprudence, in my view.
Guest
Anonymous
July 12, 2021 10:39 pm
Last week there was some discussion of big law salaries in Vegas. It appears Ballard Spahr is paying first-years 160K in Vegas:
Wow! that's a lot of money for Vegas. I'm not sure if the salary is on track with the New York scale, but taking into account cost of living, that's a lot of money.
Guest
Anonymous
July 13, 2021 12:04 am
I have concerns about the super high salaries in Vegas, especially when I see Akerman down to a third of its size. But hey, all the more power to you if you can command a higher salary. I would never want to work at Akerman, though.
Have no insight into Akerman, but their financial services/hoa superpriority lit was never going to be as high as it was from 2008-2018/19. It would make sense that they would not have the same work from the time of ground zero vegas foreclosure mania.
Akerman charges far too high of rates to be involved in residential evictions. No the firms that will make money on the end of the eviction moratorium will be far sleeker and more nimble.
I highly doubt Akerman does eviction work. I speculate there will be lots of lawsuits by people wanting to save their homes from foreclosure, Akerman's bread and butter.
Guest
Anonymous
July 13, 2021 5:06 am
About judicial name recognition, don't worry if you don't know any of them. They'll become familiar to all of us as we see the same clique running for office over and over again.
Good for Branson. He's not my favorite billionaire, but I love the spirit of adventure, creation, and a risk taking. Bezos next, and Musk all the way to the moon!
The currency of the future is Bitcoin.
This billionaire space race is just a rip off. Taxpayers are funding a senseless dick measuring contest between billionaire man children while Flint still doesn't have drinkable water and the Gulf is on fire. Stupid stupid stupid
I wasn't aware that the billionaire space race was being funded by government resources. Can you refer to any source of information that would confirm that this is true?
News to me that the taxpayers are funding any of these ventures.
https://kvia.com/news/new-mexico/2021/07/09/how-much-has-spaceport-building-cost-dona-ana-county-taxpayers/
Hey how come no one says "clit measuring contest"? Be fair now.
Because the former Mrs. Gates and former Mrs. Bezos would just be comparing who can donate more to help people.
Now that you mention it, seems like a good idea!
Because women have better things to do? See 12:27
@11:56am – Seems to me that the county tax payers aren't paying for it. It seems to me that the county taxpayers are investing in the Spaceport with the expectation that the they will get a benefit in return that exceeds the amount of money the taxpayers have invested in the Spaceport. Kinda like how Clark County "invested" in the Raider stadium hoping that the money generated by employment, visitors, taxes on casino gambling/rooms, etc, would exceed what we invested in the stadium.
@2:17 Yes and in the meantime Spaceport was built with monopoly money.
Using the stadium example, how many times have cities been screwed by these stadium deals and yet the grift continues. I'm sure the same will happen with Spaceport.
This was and is a no brainer for T or C, New Mexico. It is a shame that the majority of the workforce is living in Las Cruces but the economic benefit is plain and easy to see. They have taken one flight and it was a rousing success. If you told me that Clark County could have SpacePort and technology jobs for $200M in bonds or Allegiant Stadium to accommodate one of thirty two NFL teams for $750M and hot dog vendor jobs, I take the former every time.
4:42 PM,
You fail to take into account the fact that NFL franchises, stadiums and hot dog vendors are very, very shiny and glittery. SpacePorts? Not so much.
I love that we gave mini-oligarch Mark Davis $750M in public funds to support a mediocre franchise with a trash fan base!
is anyone else appreciating the irony of Nevada Power asking us to conserve energy after nearly killing off solar power in Nevada.
https://www.ktvn.com/story/44278542/nv-energy-asking-customers-to-conserve-electricity-saturday-and-sunday-evenings
http://blogs.edf.org/energyexchange/2016/02/11/good-policy-gone-bad-how-nevada-killed-jobs-and-clean-energy-competition/
Not seeing the connection between the two. They're asking people to conserve around sunset because that's when all solar dies (no sunlight) but it's still friggin hot so there's still a ton of electricity demand. You can put up all the solar you want it would still be the same.
Solar is for individual homes. Nuclear and coal are the only reliable, clean, efficient providers of large scale energy for communities and factories.
Yeah. Eff you NV Energy. I'm keeping it at 70. I don't care if that squeezes you with higher rates.
I'm now into week 10 since I e-filed my tax return, with no indication that the IRS will ever stop processing it and issue my refund. I can't get hold of anyone there. Perhaps they are all busily working on issuing the child tax credits?
All e-filed returns are automatically processed through a computer, not really AI, but a filter process. If a return is flagged, an automated form letter is generated. Minimum response time is 30 days but usual response is about 90 days. Not sure, but I believe a human never sees your return until after it is flagged and you respond to the form letter.
12:20,
Were this any other year but 2021, I would tend to agree. However, the fact is that the IRS is incredibly backlogged. Currently, 35 million returns (20% of the total) are still unprocessed.
Is it just me, or are 95% of the attorneys on Arbitration Selection Lists plaintiff's attorneys?
It may not be quite 95% but it's very high.
Those who successfully represent insurance carriers have a consistent flow of cases billable on an hourly basis. Thus they may often not have as much motivation (as Plaintiff's PI attorneys) to branch out into other legal activities, legal organizations, etc.
But Plaintiff's PI attorneys, even some of the better ones, often encounter cash flow issues as overhead operating expenses on a monthly basis remain huge, while often there are months where not too many cases settle and thus not too much in contingency fees are received during those tough months.
Therefore, plaintiff's PI attorneys have a far greater motivation to be organized, involved, and really aggressive bout issues and legislation affecting their practice. As we see,trial lawyer associations are usually heavily populated with Plaintiff's attorneys.
Also, the competition for cases can be ferocious as many firms specialize in PI, while many other firms seek out such cases whenever they can get 'em.
3:19, yeah, usually they are better at organizing and fighting(on the legislative and other fronts)than the defense attorneys are.
But there are exceptions. Back 15 or 20 years ago, with the so-called capping of medical malpractice judgements, the Plaintiff's Bar was clearly outspent, out-strategized, and the media, and the public in general, from the outset was clearly on the side of the medical community.
There was such a huge influx of funds from the lobbyists and PR firms for the physicians, that the fight was effectively over before it started.
Also, the winning side clearly had the public on their side and the public, and media, largely bought the horrifying narrative–super greedy attorneys are driving your doctors out of town and grossly raising your med. insurance premiums.
3:27 – Agreed. NV voters are too dumb to figure out that taking away their ability to sue their doctors hurts them all. Can't tell you how many times I've had to tell people how sorry I am, but because they don't have financial losses, I can't take their med mal case. And we still have shit doctors in this town.
But hey; capping med mal recovery really caused expenses to go down and the quality of care to go up though, right? Right? Is this thing on?
I don't agree that P-side lawyers are more organized at lobbying than D-side lawyers. It's more that there is no need for D-side lawyers to lobby because their clients – healthcare cos., insurance cos., gaming cos., etc. – do the lobbying for them. P lawyers' individual clients aren't as well organized or deep pocketed, so the lawyers themselves have to do the lobbying.
@3:19 As an arbitrator, a view that I believe many share, is that serving as an arbitrator is sort of a public service, paying it back, yada yada… I can't imagine that anyone does it for the $100/hr, (My mechanic charges more).
4:32–I agree with you, but I also agree with 3;19 and 3:27(both of who you indicate you disagree with).
You are quite correct that the defense side has all those other factions to perform their lobbying for them.
But the other posters are also correct, in their view that to compensate for such dynamic the Plaintiff's attorneys have methods where they effectively stick together as a united front(such as creating trial lawyer associations chiefly composed of plaintiff attorneys.
The discussion on Friday's blog, about the 14 applicants for the Justice Court vacancy, may have, in general, been a bit too negative in bemoaning the relative lack of quality of the applicants, as a whole.
And that being understood, and it should also understood that one cannot expect the quality that we would have for a District Court, or Appellate, appointment.
So, with those qualifiers in place, I agree with those who observe that this list does not include too many who have high name recognition in the legal community in general, or even the Criminal Law community in particular.
Usually, for any and all judicial appointments, a few names really stand out. Not the case here. The list seems top heavy with relatively young attorneys who believe they deserve and merit a highly sought-after judicial appointment merely because they have served a few short years as a DPD, or ADA, or a few years in private practice handling some criminal cases.
Now, it may be that there are several solid candidates(in terms of ability and experience) but that name recognition remains the problem. We now have thousands of lawyers. One cannot gain substantial name-recognition merely by being a competent lawyer for a few years. Far more is required, such as writing articles for our State Bar and County Bar publications, presenting CLE material, joining legal organizations, joining other prominent and influential organizations in the community, participating in media interviews and broadcasts discussing legal issues(if such opportunities arise or can be created), or a gazillion other possibilities.
But one cannot simply practice law for a few years and become a viable candidate for appointment. On needs to build name-recognition, and build connections and influence, by methods such as those just mentioned.
Or, more bluntly, one needs to network and hustle.
2:45, for someone who feels that other posters have been too harsh about these J.P. applicants, you wind up offering some pretty unflattering observations about the group, not the least of which is that they seem to not only lack name-recognition, but that many of them may lack the quality or quantity of experience to merit being selected.
You concede that the job may not require brilliance and years of private practice, in order to hit the ground running(or at least getting the hang of it pretty quickly), but you seem to put a huge emphasis that they should all pay their dues, and become well-known and accomplished in the legal community, and if not then they don't merit consideration.
I understand this "paying their dues" approach, and I have been guilty of it myself, when seeing someone with 10 or 12 undistinguished years of practice being appointed over someone with three decades of sterling practice.
But a lot more goes into being an effective judge than the question of which applicants were the better lawyers. The skill set of being a solid attorney is largely relevant to some areas of judicial appointment, but not all areas.
Which may explain why some people who we may believe would make real good judges(because they were real good attorneys) sometimes don't pan out, while people who we think won't work out because they were mediocre(or less) as attorneys, turn out to be pleasant surprises once the bench.
I do, however, agree with your point that name-recognition is not the strong suit of this list of applicants. I don't concede that the name-recognition factor is nearly as important a you hold it to be, but yes, not a lot of high profile names jump out at us from this list.
2:45, and 2:58, yes, usually there are a few really high profile names on most lists of judicial applicants.
And yes, many attorneys will feel they are unable to identify too many high profile names on this list.
But I think it's a better list than some posters here have suggested, and I think we will emerge with a decent JP from this list.
As mentioned, super intellectual heft is not the issue. This is a J.P. seat. Fairness, calendar control, a sense of proportionality, a reasonable understanding of human nature and motivations(i.e. perception), and decent Crim. Law experience, will serve the new judge well.
It's not Nuclear Physics, so relax.
The seat will probably be filled without Western Jurisprudence collapsing.
3:07-Actually, there is a name or two on that list that may bring very little honor to Western Jurisprudence, in my view.
Last week there was some discussion of big law salaries in Vegas. It appears Ballard Spahr is paying first-years 160K in Vegas:
https://www.nalpdirectory.com/employer_profile?FormID=14188&QuestionTabID=36&SearchCondJSON=%7B%22SearchEmployerName%22%3A%22ballard%20spahr%22%7D
Snell is paying 145K to first years in Vegas: https://www.swlaw.com/careers/law-students/benefits
Market rate is definitely going up in Vegas.
Wow! that's a lot of money for Vegas. I'm not sure if the salary is on track with the New York scale, but taking into account cost of living, that's a lot of money.
I have concerns about the super high salaries in Vegas, especially when I see Akerman down to a third of its size. But hey, all the more power to you if you can command a higher salary. I would never want to work at Akerman, though.
Have no insight into Akerman, but their financial services/hoa superpriority lit was never going to be as high as it was from 2008-2018/19. It would make sense that they would not have the same work from the time of ground zero vegas foreclosure mania.
Wait til the eviction moratorium is over. Akerman will grow again assuming they don't implode from within first.
Akerman charges far too high of rates to be involved in residential evictions. No the firms that will make money on the end of the eviction moratorium will be far sleeker and more nimble.
I highly doubt Akerman does eviction work. I speculate there will be lots of lawsuits by people wanting to save their homes from foreclosure, Akerman's bread and butter.
About judicial name recognition, don't worry if you don't know any of them. They'll become familiar to all of us as we see the same clique running for office over and over again.