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LAS VEGAS (AP) — The prospect of serving on Nevada's first Court of Appeals has attracted 36 applicants.
Eight state court judges, a family court hearing master, the Nye County district attorney, a chief Washoe County prosecutor and 24 lawyers from around the state were among those who submitted applications by the Wednesday deadline.
The filing period closed the same day as the state Board of Examiners signed off on allocating startup funds for the court's first six months beginning Jan. 5. The Interim Finance Committee of the state Legislature is expected next month to also approve the $782,500 that lawmakers set aside in case voters approved creating the court on Nov. 4.
District Court judges David Hardy in Reno and Jerome Tao in Las Vegas are seeking the Department 1 position, along with attorneys Janet Chubb, Michael Davidson, Chris Davis, Robert Gaston, Robert Nersesian, Janet Pancoast, Kirby Smith and Julien Sourwine.
Judges Michael Gibbons in Douglas County; Susan Johnson and William Gonzalez in Clark County seek the Department 2 seat, along with Thomas Kurtz, a Family Court alternate hearing master, and Michelle Morgando, a state hearings and appeals attorney. Lawyers Thomas Beatty III, Alan Lefebvre, Anat Levy, Kerry Malone and Richard Wayne Sears also seek the seat.
Applicants for Department 3 are judges Allan Ray Earl, Michael Montero and Abbi Silver, Nye County District Attorney Brian Kunzi, Washoe County prosecutor Joseph Plater, and attorneys Jeffrey Albregts, Karl Armstrong, James Shields Beasley, Barry Louis Breslow, C. Stanley Hunterton, Paul Dee Johnson, Annie Kung, Aaron Lovaas, Aurora Maria Maskall, Douglas Rands and Joan Chisholm Wright.
The state Commission on Judicial Selection will conduct interviews and forward a list of finalists for the three seats to Gov. Brian Sandoval.
Sandoval, a Republican former U.S. District Court judge, is expected to make appointments by the end of the year. Appointees can run in November 2016 for election to a six-year term.
All civil and criminal appeals from the state's 82 district courts will still go to the state Supreme Court. The seven justices will assign or "push down" about 700 to 800 cases a year to the Court of Appeals.
The high court is on pace to render about 2,300 rulings this year. It has a backlog of more than 2,100 open cases.
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