Judge Dianne Steel Advertisement

You may remember Dianne Steel if you lived in Pahrump in 2004.

She was a candidate in the ring that year for Supreme Court justice.

Steel asked for voters' support at the Saddle West Candidates Night, sponsored by Pahrump Rotary Club and The Pahrump Valley Times, so she could bring her background in family law to a court she said was sorely lacking such experience.

This time Steel, a Republican, is running against Democrat Michael Douglas (PVT July 21) for Seat F on the high bench.

Steel's complaint about the highest state court should sound familiar. "I think they're not representing families up there as they should," she said. "There's a large area of law -- family court jurisdiction -- that's not being represented."

Family courts were created by the legislature in 1993 to deal with domestic legal issues, primarily household violence, child custody and child support, in Washoe and Clark counties. Since then, rules of conduct, procedure and processes have been established, Steel said.

Family courts have come into their own in Nevada, except in the state's Supreme Court, Steel said.

"All the judges on the bench have a background in criminal law, contract law, government law or personal injury," said the judge, who has practiced in the family division of the Clark County District Court since 1997. "They don't have the background to deal with the administration of family courts."

Steel was chief of staff for the lieutenant governor's office in Las Vegas in 1996 and served in the Nevada Assembly as a legislator from 1995 to 1996.

Steel graduated from Valdosta State College and the California Western School of Law. She served as president and vice president (1997 to 2002) on the family law section of the Nevada state bar and was also president and vice president of the Nevada District Judges Association (2000-2002).

There are 13 district court judges in Clark County and six in Washoe County dealing with family court issues. "That's all they do," said Steel. "The Supreme Court has to administer all these courts, and the Supreme Court determines where the money is spent.

"I don't believe that the family division of the state district courts has gotten the focus from the Supreme Court because there's no one up there with that passion or background."

In Clark County about 10 percent of state court cases are family court issues, she said. Many cases involving sticky domestic issues are farmed out to "settlement conferences." If they aren't settled, they're bought back to the Supreme Court, Steel said.

"It's vital that we have somebody up there to work those issues through quicker, regardless of what the family issue is," she said. Unsettled family issues that continue to be contentious have a crippling effect on families and ripple throughout the community, Steel said.

"Family law attorneys are not high dollar and high profile like criminal and personal injury lawyers," she said. The latter are the ones "who make large campaign donations to political campaigns."

Family issues, such as child custody and drug abuse, are private by their very nature, said Steel, because they reflect on personal character. She said someone with a background of dealing with such issues should be on the court.

Steel said she also has a problem with the way Supreme Court decisions are written and published. Some are made through a consensus of the justices' opinions, without ever saying which justice had the responsibility for writing the decision, or whether any dissenting opinions were offered.

Steel said she wants to have a full review of disclosure laws with regard to financial contributions made during political campaigns "so that the community feels easier about it."

She also said she wants to better enable the rural counties of the southern and central parts of the state to obtain better access to justice. "In Goldfield they have to beg attorneys to come there to write their wills," she said by way of example.

"I really feel I could be the people's representative," says Steel, "not just in family law issues but in other issues the people have concerns about that affect them through the courts."