CARRILLO VS. LOPEZ (CHILD CUSTODY)

Key holdings

Practitioner summary

The court dismissed the appeal under NRAP 3E(1) for failure to file a fast track opening brief. After issuing an April 1, 2025 notice setting a June 2, 2025 deadline and a June 11, 2025 order granting an additional 7 days, both of which warned that noncompliance could result in dismissal, the court found that the appellant neither filed the brief nor communicated with the court. Treating the inaction as abandonment, the court dismissed the appeal. The order does not reach any substantive custody issue.

In plain language

This is a child custody appeal that ended before the Nevada Supreme Court ever considered the merits. Erik Carrillo, representing himself, appealed a Clark County district court ruling that awarded child custody. To move an appeal forward, an appellant must file written arguments - here, a "fast track opening brief," a streamlined written argument required in certain family-law appeals - explaining why the lower court got it wrong. On April 1, 2025, the Supreme Court told Carrillo to file his opening brief by June 2, 2025, and warned him that missing the deadline could result in dismissal. He missed it. On June 11, 2025, the court gave him another 7 days and repeated the warning. He missed that deadline too and, according to the order, did not otherwise communicate with the court. Because Carrillo never filed the brief and never contacted the court, the Supreme Court concluded he had abandoned the appeal and dismissed it. The custody ruling from the district court therefore stands.