LONDON VS. STEPHENS (CHILD CUSTODY)

Key holdings

Practitioner summary

This is a clerk's order of dismissal under NRAP 3(a)(2) for failure to comply with NRAP 3(e) and (f). The appeal was docketed on January 13, 2023, without the filing fee and without the case appeal statement. The court issued notices the same day requiring compliance within 7 days, advising that nonpayment of the fee would result in dismissal and that failure to file the case appeal statement could result in sanctions including dismissal, and referencing NRAP 24 as the mechanism to demonstrate fee-waiver eligibility. The appellant did not cure either defect or respond. The court dismissed the appeal accordingly. The order announces no new rule and applies the procedural requirements of NRAP 3 as written.

In plain language

This is a one-page clerk's order ending an appeal before it ever began on the merits. When someone files an appeal with the Nevada Supreme Court, the rules require two basic things at the outset: paying a filing fee (or showing eligibility to proceed without paying it) and filing a short document called a "case appeal statement" that identifies the case and the parties. According to the order, the appellant, Crystal London, did neither. On the same day the appeal was docketed, the court sent her notices telling her she had 7 days to pay the fee (or demonstrate she qualified to skip it under NRAP 24) and to file the case appeal statement. The notices warned that not paying the fee would lead to dismissal and that not filing the case appeal statement could also lead to sanctions including dismissal. The order states that the appellant did not pay the fee, did not file the case appeal statement, and did not otherwise respond to the court's notices. The court therefore dismissed the appeal. The order does not address the underlying child custody dispute or any substantive issue.