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By Steve William Sanson

"The movement to establish Small Claims Court typically began in the early 1960s when Justice of the Peace courts were increasingly being seen as obsolete. At this time there became a need to have such a court specifically for Small Claims which would allow people to represent themselves without legal counsel. In New York State the establishment of Small Claims Court was in response to the findings of Governor Thomas E. Dewey's."

In 1909 Clark County was created by the Nevada Legislature and Las Vegas was selected as the county seat. That same year, the legislature created the Fourth Judicial District Court, which included Clark County.

In 1929, the Legislature created the Eighth Judicial District Court to serve the needs of Clark and Lincoln Counties. Growth in southern Nevada led to a change in 1945 when the Legislature set the boundaries of the Eighth Judicial District Court to serve only Clark County.

When Las Vegas was plotted as a new city in 1905, a block of downtown was set aside as the site of a courthouse square. Three courthouses served the public on that downtown block, located at 200 South Third Street until October 2005, when various courts, including the Clark County Courts, moved into the Regional Justice Center at 200 Lewis Avenue in downtown Las Vegas.

Small Claims Court is a special proceeding designed to resolve disputes involving suits for money damages of $1.00 to $5,000.00 with less formality than a regular court proceeding. It is held within local Justice Courts and is presided over by a Justice of the Peace (JP). It is designed to be used without hiring a lawyer.

The law governing Small Claims Court is located at NRS, Chapter 73 and Justice Courts Rules of Civil Procedure (JCRCP) 88 -100. Most of the people know that Small Claims Court is represented by Referees that take the place of the Justice Of The Peace (JP) who receive about $80.00 a day to appear.

Some of the Referees appear, because they have aspirations to be appointed or elected Judge. However there is the minority whom feel they are the "almighty" and disregard the concept of facts and presented documents ruling instead on opinions and feelings. I call this abuse of power.

I have been appearing in Small Claims Court since 1998 since that time I have become somewhat of an expert on this process. I have appeared before every Justice of the Peace on Formal Objections or Order to Show Cause Hearings from 1998 to 2006. I have written a book as well as a revised version on "How to Collect on Your Bad Debt Accounts in Clark County for Southern and Northern Nevada. I have instructed Small Claims classes at the Community College of Southern Nevada (CCSN) . I have instructed seminars for National Business Institute (NBI) and I am a Qualified Collections Agency Manager certified by the state of Nevada.

What drives me crazy is when I am in front of a Referee who should not be on the bench.

Twice I appeared before Bradley L. Kenny born in 1968, bar number 5033 and works for his brother's law firm Craig P. Kenny & Associates becoming a member on the Nevada Bar in 1993. I had two experiences in front of this Referee and both times his ruling was bias and unjust.

The first time I appeared before Kenny was on September 7, 2006, on a contract case when the defendant failed to provide his cancellation letter. The advertisement contract was presented to the court as evidence clearly stating that the defendant has to provide a certified letter to the plaintiff in order to cancel his advertisement within seven days of signing the agreement. The plaintiff testified no such letter was provided and the defendant had no evidence to support his testimony.

Kenny discounted the contract did not read the contract and awarded the case to the defendant, yet makes suggestion to others to bring their evidence to court. Now the defendant is unjustly enriched with several thousand dollars worth of advertisement. I filed a formal objection on this case and asked Judge Bonaventure to vacate the Referees Findings of Facts Conclusions of Law and now this case is in District Court. So this Referees poor decision made more work for our court system.

The second time I appeared before Kenny was on February 8, 2007, on a contract case. The defendant was sued because they failed to pay for their advertisement. The defendant is an attorney and his argument was that the plaintiff changed the color of the cover of the phone book. This is the reason why he did not pay his bill although he paid several thousand dollars already and then decided to stop making payments.

When you thought you heard every ridiculous defense argument known to man, this one was never heard before. The defendant never complained about his advertisement, the contract with the defendant had nothing to do with the color of cover for the phone book, the color of the cover on the phone book was changed once before and the defendant never complained. The defendant also stated that he wanted to file a counterclaim, because he was damaged by the color of the cover changing.

The defendant was personally served December 11, 2006, and had 59 days before the date of trial to file a counterclaim. In addition, a counterclaim takes 10 minutes to type up and a counterclaim should be filed with the court and served at least 21 days prior to the trial date.

Kenny did not even look in my direction or ask me for any rebuttal he just made a statement to the defense "I will give you 30 days to file your counterclaim as a professional courtesy." It sounds to me that Kenny wanted to find any reason to get through his court calendar like moving a herd of cattle or is Kenny intimidated by attorneys, or does he not know the law in Small Claims?

In doing this Kenny now opened up a can of worms for himself because now anybody that asks for a counterclaim, in the middle of trial needs to be given such. Well, that is unless Kenny does not wish to be known as discriminating against the General Public, because they are not attorneys.

Let's not forget Small Claims is the People's Court and in most States attorneys are not allowed, but in this case the defendant is an attorney and was not even sworn in to testify on his own behalf.

My questions now are who picks these Referees, are they not cognizant of whom they are putting to preside on the bench? Do these Referees even have the knowledge to preside in Small Claims Court and serve the publics interest? Fortunately, I have the knowledge of Small Claims, unfortunately others do not and my concern is they will be unjustly served!

I have been lobbing for a Permanent Small Claims Court ever since the new Regional Justice Center opened its doors in October 2005.

Small Claims Court has been floating from court room to court room, using which ever room is available at the time. This system has caused confusion and disarray. It is bad enough for an individual who is representing him or herself in a Small Claims matter to present his or her case, no less be confused by trying to figure out which court room is available to hear their case.

I have addressed this issue to the Clark County Board of County Commissioners, Las Vegas City Council, and Charles J. Short, District Court Administrator about this ongoing problem.

However, Charles Short gave me several dates when a permanent Small Claims Court would come to fruition and none of the date's panned out. The final date is when he explained to me it will happen when Judge Bonaventure receives his permanent court room, at that time he would provide a permanent Small Claims Court room in court room 1A. Well, Judge Bonaventure has been in his permanent court room for several weeks now and the people still do not have a permanent Small Claims Court.

I have to give a special recognition to Sharon Power and Eva Cervantes whom are the heart and soul of the Small Claims Court System for all of Las Vegas and Clark County not including Henderson, Boulder City, and North Las Vegas.

Both Power and Cervantes have done an excellent job preparing calendars, answering questions, preparing minutes, providing bilingual interpretation (which is not paid for). These ladies move from court room to court room not knowing what court room they will be in next. My hat goes off to both of these ladies and I would have to say "job well done."

E-mail: SteveWSanson@cs.com phone 702 283 8088
Website: www.VeteransInPolitics.com