By Milan Chatterjee | Founding Attorney, Milan Legal |
The Nevada litigation process decides your case’s track before you decide your strategy. A defendant has 21 days to answer. An early case conference has to happen within 30 days of that answer. And as of January 1, 2026, a civil case worth up to $100,000 per plaintiff is diverted out of the ordinary trial docket automatically, which is double the figure that applied to cases filed before that date.
This guide sets out the Nevada litigation process as it actually runs: the opening deadlines, the value threshold that reroutes most cases, what the diverted track looks like, and how appeals are assigned. The practice areas are covered separately and linked at the end.
The Nevada Litigation Process Starts on a 21-Day Clock
The first deadlines arrive before most parties have finished deciding whether they want to fight.
| Step | Deadline | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Serve an answer after being served with the summons and complaint | 21 days | NRCP 12(a)(1)(A)(i) |
| Serve an answer where service was waived | 60 days from when the waiver request was sent, or 90 days if sent outside the United States | NRCP 12(a)(1)(A)(ii) |
| Serve a responsive pleading after a Rule 12 motion is denied or postponed to trial | 14 days after notice of the court’s action | NRCP 12(a)(3)(A) |
| Hold the early case conference | 30 days after service of an answer by the first answering defendant | NRCP 16.1(b)(2)(A) |
| File the joint case conference report | 30 days after the conference | NRCP 16.1(c)(1)(A) |
The pair at the bottom is the one that catches people. The early case conference is not a formality and the joint report that follows it fixes the calendar date on which discovery closes, under NRCP 16.1(c)(2)(L). A party who treats those two steps as administrative has agreed to a discovery schedule before understanding what discovery the case needs.
Most Nevada Civil Cases Are Diverted Out of the Trial Docket
This is the single least understood feature of civil litigation in Nevada, and the line moved this year.
Nevada operates a mandatory, non-binding court-annexed arbitration program. Civil cases filed in district court go into it automatically where the amount in issue does not exceed the statutory threshold, subject to a list of exclusions. It is not something the parties elect and not something they can decline at the outset.
The threshold doubled on January 1, 2026
Assembly Bill 3 of the 2025 session amended NRS 38.250. The amount in issue that puts a case into the program rose from $50,000 to $100,000 per plaintiff, measured exclusive of interest, court costs and legal costs. The new figure applies to civil cases filed on or after January 1, 2026.
The consequence is that a large band of disputes which would previously have proceeded on the ordinary docket are now routed into arbitration first. Anything written about Nevada civil procedure using the $50,000 figure is describing the position for cases filed before this year.
Three new exclusions arrived with it
AB 3 also added three categories that are excluded from the program. The first is an action in which an insurer is alleged to have acted in bad faith regarding its obligations to provide coverage and punitive damages are sought. The second is an action involving sexual assault or sexual battery. The third is an action for product liability. These sit alongside the exclusions that already existed, and a case falling within any of them stays on the ordinary docket rather than being diverted.
What happens after the arbitration award
The award is non-binding. A party who is dissatisfied may file a request for trial de novo, and that is where the second surprise arrives: the case does not simply return to the ordinary trial calendar. It enters the Short Trial Program automatically, unless a party removes it.
The Short Trial Program Is a Different Kind of Trial
A short trial is a real trial with a jury and a verdict. It is also compressed to an extent that changes how a case has to be prepared.
The person presiding is not a sitting district judge but a short trial judge, selected by stipulation, random selection or senior judge appointment. Under NSTR 3(c) that person must be an active member of the State Bar of Nevada with 10 years of civil trial experience.
The jury is four members by default. The parties may stipulate to four or six, and a party may request eight for good cause shown, under NSTR 22. Each side then gets 3.5 hours to present its case unless a different period is stipulated and approved, under NSTR 21. A party who wants out may file a written demand to remove the case from the program, and where the case arrived by request for trial de novo that demand is due within 14 days under NSTR 5.
Three and a half hours per side is the figure worth sitting with. It is enough for a focused case with two or three witnesses and a short documentary record. It is not enough for a case that needs expert testimony on both sides, and a party who intends to try one that way needs to make the removal decision inside 14 days rather than discovering the constraint during trial preparation.
The Track Is Chosen Early, and Largely by Value
Every decision above follows from two things: the amount in issue, and dates that run from service rather than from readiness. Both are settled in the opening weeks of a case.
Where a Nevada Business Dispute Is Heard
Both major counties run a specialist business docket, and they work differently.
In Clark County, EDCR 1.61 assigns matters to the Business Court where the primary claims arise under NRS Chapters 78 to 92A, along with Uniform Commercial Code claims, business tort claims and claims involving the purchase or sale of stock, assets or commercial real estate. Assignment follows from the subject matter.
In Washoe County, WDCR 2.1 establishes a Business Court Docket for disputes concerning the validity, control, operation or governance of entities created under NRS Chapters 78 to 88, including shareholder derivative actions, and for trade secret, securities and deceptive trade practice claims. There a party requests assignment and the presiding judge decides, and several categories are excluded outright.
The interaction with the arbitration threshold is worth noting. A governance dispute may be eligible for a specialist docket and simultaneously fall under the amount in issue that diverts it, which makes the value of the claim a procedural decision as well as a commercial one.
Appeals Run Through the Supreme Court First
Nevada’s Court of Appeals is not a court you appeal to. It is a court cases are sent down to.
Nevada created the Court of Appeals by constitutional amendment approved in 2014, seated the following year, and adopted what is known as a deflective or push-down model. A notice of appeal is filed with the Nevada Supreme Court. The Supreme Court then assigns eligible matters down to the Court of Appeals under NRAP 17. A litigant does not choose the court.
The Court of Appeals presumptively takes civil, criminal, family and administrative matters, while defined categories remain with the Supreme Court. For planning purposes the practical point is that the composition of the panel hearing an appeal is not something a party selects or can predict from the subject matter alone.
Litigation in Las Vegas and Clark County
Clark County generates the largest civil caseload in the state and runs both the arbitration program and the Short Trial Program at volume. The Eighth Judicial District Court’s Alternative Dispute Resolution office administers the arbitration program, and the automatic exemption process is handled there rather than by motion.
The county’s construction, hospitality and real estate activity produces a high proportion of disputes sitting just above or just below the $100,000 line, which is precisely where the January 2026 change has most effect.
Litigation in Reno and Washoe County
The Second Judicial District Court runs the arbitration program in northern Nevada on the same statewide rules, and the threshold in NRS 38.250 does not vary by county. What differs is the business docket: WDCR 2.1 requires a request and a judicial decision rather than assigning cases automatically, so a party who wants that docket has to ask for it.
Milan Legal Perspective
Before founding Milan Legal, Milan Chatterjee served as Associate Compliance Counsel at Las Vegas Sands Corporation, a Fortune 500 hospitality company, advising senior leadership on compliance, governance and risk across global operations. A UCLA School of Law graduate admitted in Nevada (Bar No. 15159) and California, he was appointed to the Nevada Supreme Court Access to Justice Commission and serves as Founding President of the South Asian Bar Association of Las Vegas.
Milan Legal works with individuals, families and business owners across Las Vegas, Clark County, Reno, Washoe County and the Lake Tahoe region.
Frequently Asked Questions
A defendant has 21 days to answer under NRCP 12(a)(1)(A)(i). An early case conference follows within 30 days of that answer under NRCP 16.1(b)(2)(A), and the joint report is due 30 days later. Cases at or below the statutory amount in issue are then diverted into mandatory non-binding arbitration, and a request for trial de novo sends the case into the Short Trial Program rather than back to the ordinary docket.
21 days after being served with the summons and complaint, under NRCP 12(a)(1)(A)(i). Where service was waived, 60 days from when the waiver request was sent, or 90 days if it was sent outside the United States. After a Rule 12 motion is denied, 14 days from notice of the court’s action.
$100,000 per plaintiff, measured exclusive of interest, court costs and legal costs, for civil cases filed on or after January 1, 2026. Assembly Bill 3 of the 2025 session amended NRS 38.250 to double the previous $50,000 figure.
AB 3 added three categories: actions alleging insurer bad faith regarding coverage obligations where punitive damages are sought, actions involving sexual assault or sexual battery, and actions for product liability. Those sit alongside the exclusions that already applied.
No. The program is non-binding. A dissatisfied party may file a request for trial de novo, which moves the case into the Short Trial Program automatically unless a party files a demand to remove it.
A jury trial on a compressed schedule. Under the Nevada Short Trial Rules the default jury is four members, each side has 3.5 hours to present its case, and the presiding short trial judge must be an active member of the State Bar of Nevada with 10 years of civil trial experience.
Yes, by filing a written demand to remove the case. For a case that arrives through a request for trial de novo, that demand is due within 14 days under NSTR 5.
No. Nevada uses a push-down model. A notice of appeal is filed with the Nevada Supreme Court, which assigns eligible matters down to the Court of Appeals under NRAP 17. The Court of Appeals presumptively handles civil, criminal, family and administrative matters, with defined categories retained by the Supreme Court.
Conclusion
The Nevada litigation process is decided early and largely by two variables. Dates run from service rather than from readiness: 21 days to answer, 30 days to the early case conference, 30 more to the report that fixes when discovery closes. And value decides the track, on a line that moved on January 1, 2026 when NRS 38.250 rose from $50,000 to $100,000 per plaintiff.
A case above that line proceeds conventionally. A case below it is arbitrated first, and a request for trial de novo delivers a four-person jury and 3.5 hours per side unless someone opts out within 14 days. None of that is a matter of preference, and all of it is worth knowing before the answer is filed rather than after.
Speak With a Nevada Litigation Attorney Before the Situation Escalates
The useful early questions are which track the case is headed for, which of the opening deadlines have already started, and what the joint case conference report should commit to. Those answers shape everything that follows.
