Experienced Nevada Appellate Attorneys
Pecos Law Group has experienced Nevada Appellate lawyers to handle your Nevada Supreme Court appeals. Not all attorneys are appeals lawyers. Appellate representation in the Nevada Supreme Court requires specific skill and experience. Judges are not perfect, and you are not necessarily stuck with a poor decision. If you lost your case at trial and the judge made a mistake, you may be able to appeal the decision. Likewise, if during the litigation the judge makes a decision that might cause you irreparable harm, but an appeal is not permitted, you may be able seek emergency relief with a Nevada Supreme Court writ.
While most appeals and writs are denied, our firm has had success with the Nevada appellate litigation. Our Las Vegas appellate attorneys can handle an appeal from any district court in Nevada. An experienced Supreme Court Appellate lawyer may enhance your chances of reversing a poor decision or mistake by the trial judge. Our appeal lawyers have been involved in published and landmark Nevada Supreme Court opinions including the following cases:
Arcella v. Arcella, 133 Nev. Ad. Op. 104, 407 P.3d 341, (December 26, 2017)
Nguyen v. Boynes, 133 Nev. Ad. Op. 32, 396 P.3d 774, (June 22, 2017)
Petit v. Adrianzen, 133 Nev. Ad. Op. 15, 392 P.3d 630 (April 13, 2017)
Ivey v. Ivey, 129 Nev. Ad. Op. 16 (March 28, 2013)
Rivero v. Rivero, 125 Nev. 410, 216 P.3d 213 (2009)
Johanson v. Eighth Judicial District Court, 124 Nev. 245, 182 P.3d 94 (2008)
Millen v. Eighth Judicial District Court, 122 Nev. 1245, 148 P.3d 694 (2006)
Miller v. Miller, 134 Nev. Ad. Op. 16 , 412 P.3d 1081, (March 15, 2018)
McClintock v. McClintock, 122 Nev. 842, 138 P.3d 513 (2006)
Hudson v. Jones, 122 Nev 708, 138 P.3d 429 (2006)
Potter v. Potter, 121 Nev. 613, 119 P.3d 1246 (2005) (amicus brief on behalf of Family Law Section, State Bar of Nevada)
Kirkpatrick v. Eighth Judicial District Court, 119 Nev. 66, 64 P.3d 1056 (2003)
Wright v. Osburn, 114 Nev. 1367, 970 P.2d 1071 (1998)
Hopper v. Hopper, 113 Nev. 1138, 946 P.2d 171 (1997)
Khaldy v. Khaldy, 111 Nev. 374, 892 P.2d 584 (1995)
Lewis v. Hicks, 108 Nev. 1107, 843 P.2d 828 (1992)
Pending Notable Appeals writs from Pecos Law Group
Special needs children. Despite the unquestioned special needs of the parties’ disabled child, and significant expenses related to those special needs, the district court denied an upward deviation in child support. On behalf of the custodial parent, Pecos Law Group appealed the district court’s decision and is arguing the district court, pursuant to statute, should have awarded the custodial parent additional child support to assist in the special needs of the child.
Custody as “parental punishment.” The district court awarded primary physical custody and relocation to a parent based primarily on perceived wrongdoing by the other parent. Pecos Law Group appealed the district court’s order on behalf of the noncustodial parent and is arguing that the district court should have based its child custody decision on the best interests of the child, not perceived wrongdoing by a parent.
Third-party custody. A biological parent conceded custody to a third-party relative, then returned to the district court to try to modify the arrangement, which the district court denied. The biological parent appealed the district court’s order. Pecos Law Group represents the respondent third-party relative and has argued that the district court made the right decision, as the children have been thriving in the third-party relative’s care.
Divorce: Property Division, Alimony, and Attorney’s Fees. Pecos Law Group prevailed at trial and the client was awarded a significant amount of alimony and attorney’s fees. The opposing party has appealed the trial court’s orders while failing to abide by the district court’s decision. Pecos Law Group is defending against the appeal has obtaining several findings of contempt against the opposing party for failing to follow the district court orders while the matter is on appeal.
Pecos Law Group Notable Recent Unpublished Orders
Unmerged Marital Settlement Agreements. A spouse sought a declaratory judgment that the parties’ unmerged settlement agreement was void because, among other things, it was extinguished upon entry of the parties’ Decree of Divorce. The district court declared the settlement agreement void, and Pecos Law Group appealed. The Nevada Court of Appeals agreed that the unmerged settlement agreement was not extinguished by the parties’ divorce and remanded the case back to the district court for further proceedings.
The Appellate Process in Nevada
The Nevada Rules of Appellate Procedure require the notice of appeal to be filed within thirty days of written notice of entry of the order to be appealed from. If the notice of appeal is not filed by that date, your rights to appeal from this decision will be forever after waived.
The general procedure of an appeal is as follows:
- This office prepares and files a “Notice of Appeal” and pays filing fees in the amount of $24.00 to the Clark County Clerk and $250.00 to the Clerk of the Supreme Court. We also prepare and file a “Case Appeal Statement” to accompany the notice of appeal. It is also necessary to post a costs bond in the amount of $500.00.
- Upon the filing of the notice of appeal, the Clark County Clerk forwards to the Clerk of the Supreme Court the filing fee and copies of several documents from the district court’s file. After that, the Clerk of the Supreme Court sends out letters acknowledging receipt of the filing fee and notifying the parties that the case has been docketed.
- After the notice of appeal is filed, this office reviews the court file to determine which transcripts are necessary for the appeal. We then obtain the court reporter’s estimate of the cost of preparing the transcripts, pay a deposit to the court reporter for the preparation of the transcripts, and file a formal “Request for Transcripts” with the Supreme Court. All of this must be accomplished within fifteen days of the filing of the Notice of Appeal.
- Once the transcript request has been filed, the court reporter prepares the transcripts, files them with the Clerk of the Supreme Court, and provides us copies of the transcripts. Upon receipt of the transcripts, we serve copies of the transcripts on the respondent.
- After the filing of the formal request for transcripts, this office prepares and files with the Clerk of the Supreme Court a docketing statement which provides information needed by the court to determine how best to handle the appeal. The docketing statement must be filed within 15 days of the docketing of the appeal.
- Many appeals are referred to the Supreme Court Settlement Program. If the appeal is set for a settlement conference, we complete a confidential settlement brief, which is sent only to the Settlement Judge and outlines the factual history of the case, main points of argument on appeal, and potential settlement agreement to resolve the case. If the matter does not resolve in settlement, the appellate court will issue a timeline to complete briefs.
- The next action we complete is to prepare and file the opening brief, together with an appendix containing copies of documents filed in the district court which are relevant to the case on appeal. Preparation and filing of the brief entails, among other things, gathering the facts of the case, formulating the legal arguments to be presented, writing the brief, copying, covering and binding the brief, and sending it to the Clerk of the Supreme Court for filing. The opening brief must be filed within 120 days of the docketing of the appeal.
- After the opening brief and appendix are filed, the respondent has thirty days within which to file an answering brief, and we are allowed another thirty days after that to file a reply brief, if necessary. The case then gets submitted to the court for decision. The court will likely decide the case on the written briefs, but in some circumstances may schedule the matter for a 30-minute oral argument if it has questions that were not answered by the briefs.