By Chief Judge Melisa De La Garza
The elections and 2024 are bringing about many changes for Las Vegas Justice Court. In September, Judge Melisa De La Garza began her term as the chief judge of LVJC. Judge De La Garza was elected to the bench in the primary election of 2018 and initially presided over one of the court’s domestic violence tracks. Since then, she has presided over a civil docket, as well as the Community Court Program. She will continue to oversee the Community Court in addition to her duties as chief judge. Judge De La Garza is honored and excited to have been elected by her colleagues to manage the busiest court in Clark County.
On election day, November 5, 2024, Suzan Baucum was elected to serve the remaining term of retired Judge Melissa Stratton, Department 4. Because Judge Baucum will be completing Judge Stratton’s term rather than beginning a new judicial term, she will start with the Las Vegas Justice Court on December 2, 2024, rather than January of 2025. Judge Baucum will preside over the Initial Appearance Court, which sets bail for defendants entering the criminal justice system in Las Vegas Justice Court. The bench is excited to have Judge Baucum back.
Also elected in November were Kristal Bradford and Nancy Bernstein. Kristal Bradford comes to the bench from the Clark County Public Defender’s Office and Nancy Bernstein will be leaving private practice to join the bench. Judge Bradford was elected to Department 2 and will oversee a criminal calendar. Judge Bernstein was elected to Department 8 and will preside over one of the domestic violence tracks. Both Judge Bradford and Judge Bernstein will begin their terms in January, 2025. Congratulations to both.
Also starting in January, the court will implement a system of tracking criminal cases known as One Judge/One Defendant. Rather than randomly assigning every case to our criminal judges, a case will be assigned to a specific judge if the defendant has a current open pending case in front of said judge. The goal of the One Judge/One Defendant model is for a judge to have all of a defendant’s cases before him or her in order to treat and sentence the person as a whole. Instead of a defendant having three cases in front of three different judges with different attorneys and different prosecutors, the defendant will have one team looking at all three cases and making determinations about how to proceed based upon the totality of the defendant’s circumstances. The Las Vegas Justice Court is anticipating success with this new program.
About the author
Chief Judge De La Garza is honored to become the chief judge of the busiest court in Clark County. Las Vegas Justice Court had over 45,000 criminal case filings and nearly 100,000 civil case filings for fiscal year 2023. In addition, the court handled an additional 126,000 traffic matters. The Las Vegas Justice Court has nine specialty courts including drug court, mental health court, veterans’ court and DUI court. Judge De La Garza shares a bench with 15 other Justices of the Peace, three hearing masters and over 300 staff. She will continue to preside over the Community Court specialty court as she oversees her duties as the chief judge.
About the article
© 2024 Clark County Bar Association (CCBA). All rights reserved. No reproduction of any portion of this issue is allowed without written permission from the publisher. Editorial policy available upon request.
This article was originally published in the Communiqué (Dec. 2024), the official publication of the Clark County Bar Association. See https://clarkcountybar.org/about/member-benefits/communique-2024/communique-dec-2024/.
The articles and advertisements appearing in Communiqué magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the CCBA, the CCBA Publications Committee, the editorial board, or the other authors. All legal and other issues discussed are not for the purpose of answering specific legal questions. Attorneys and others are strongly advised to independently research all issues.