NEAL VS. NEAL (DIVORCE)

Key holdings

Practitioner summary

On the wife's (appellant's) motion for allowances to prosecute her appeal - $1,500 attorney's fees, $275 for the transcript of the trial proceedings, and a $25 filing fee. The respondent did not appear. The motion was supported by the official reporter's estimate that the transcript would approximate $275 and by the appellant's affidavit that she was destitute while the respondent had an income of approximately $250 per month; the moving papers disclosed nothing about the history of the case or the issues tried. The court ordered the respondent to pay, within thirty days after written notice, an aggregate of $700 - $25 for the filing fee, $275 for the transcript, and $400 for attorney's fees on appeal - granting the costs items in full while substantially reducing the requested attorney's fee.

In plain language

A wife who was appealing her divorce case asked the Nevada Supreme Court to make her husband pay for the costs of her appeal: $1,500 in attorney's fees, $275 for the transcript of the trial, and a $25 filing fee. The husband did not show up to oppose the motion, in person or through a lawyer. The wife supported her request with the court reporter's estimate that the transcript would cost about $275 and with her own sworn statement that she was destitute while her husband earned about $250 a month. Her papers did not describe the history of the case or the issues that had been tried. The court granted allowances in a reduced total of $700: the full $25 filing fee, the full $275 for the transcript, and $400 (rather than the requested $1,500) for attorney's fees, all to be paid within thirty days.