Nevada Court of Appeals set to begin work Monday

A new Nevada state Court of Appeals is gearing up to begin work Monday with three appointees.

Former state district court judges Jerome Tao and Abbi Silver from Las Vegas and Michael Patrick Gibbons from Minden were elevated to the new court by Gov. Brian Sandoval.

Nevada had been one of 10 states in the nation without an intermediate appellate court until voters in November amended the state constitution.

All civil and criminal appeals from the state’s more than 80 district courts will still go to the seven-member Nevada Supreme Court.

The high court is on pace to render about 2,300 rulings this year and has a backlog of more than 2,100 cases.

The justices will assign or “push down” about 700 to 800 cases a year to the Court of Appeals.