IN RE: PETITION BY FUENTES-JARAMILLO (FAMILY)

Key holdings

Practitioner summary

The court reiterated the threshold jurisdictional principle that it "may only consider appeals authorized by statute or court rule," quoting Brown v. MHC Stagecoach, LLC, 129 Nev. 343, 345, 301 P.3d 850, 851 (2013). Finding no statute or court rule authorizing an appeal from a district court order denying an affidavit to disqualify a judge, the court concluded it lacked appellate jurisdiction and dismissed the appeal without reaching the merits.

In plain language

Irene Fuentes-Jaramillo, representing herself, tried to appeal a decision from the Clark County district court. The decision she wanted to challenge was the denial of her request to disqualify a judge - that is, to have a particular judge removed from her case. The Nevada Supreme Court did not decide whether the disqualification request had merit. Instead, the court explained that it can only hear appeals that a statute or a court rule specifically allows. Because no statute or rule permits an appeal from an order denying an affidavit to disqualify a judge, the Supreme Court concluded it had no power (no "jurisdiction") to consider the appeal and dismissed it.