What's so wild about Vegas law?

Vegas is pure capitalism in action, with most of its residents always on the hustle for money, power, or influence. And this pursuit of ways up the financial, authority, and prestige ladder spills over into legal practice with attorneys committing ethical violations and judges collecting huge campaign funds.


In addition, the caseload is high in Vegas, so the District Court appoints Senior Judges to handle the overload of trials. The Senior Judges do not have to reveal their financial interests and cannot be removed from a case by a peremptory challenge. The lack of transparency in the Senior Judge system allows judges to preside on cases over parties who have engaged in significant financial deals with the judge (stock ownership, real estate, business ownership, etc).

And like any great wild west sideshow, we've got it all (via Las Vegas Review Journal):

• a judge threatened with indictment for blackmail unless he steps down, only to be put back on the bench by the NV Supreme Court as a Senior Judge (Judge James A. Brennan);
• judges issuing letters to other judges praising defendants alleged of drug smuggling (Judge Brennan, former NV Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Springer and former Justice of the Peace Dan Ahlstrom);
• a judge accepting comps from a casino owner/mobster, then presiding over an appeal from the Gaming Commission (Judge Joseph S. Pavlikowski)
• a judge presiding over a property dispute with a casino in which the judge owned 12,000 shares of stock (Judge Stephen L. Huffaker)

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Jun-18-Sun-2006/news/7963570.html

• a judge borrowing $15k from a lawyer then hearing cases from that lawyer's firm (Judge Gene T. Porter)
• a judge giving his campaign contributions to his girlfriend as a gift (Judge Donald M. Mosely)

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Jun-18-Sun-2006/news/7963657.html

And then there's Judge Halverson, but her wild west adventures have already become a national soap opera. All of which has led to criticism that Nevada has an old boy's network rather than a judicial system.