SHORT V. RYDES-SHORT (Family)

Key holdings

• -Where an appellant fails to file a required transcript request form (or certificate of no transcript request) and a docketing statement despite notice and a subsequent order cautioning that noncompliance could result in dismissal, the appeal may be dismissed as abandoned.
• -Respondent's motion to discharge her attorney and proceed pro se was granted, and the clerk was directed to remove that attorney as counsel of record.

Practitioner summary

This is a pro se appeal from a decree of divorce out of the Fifth Judicial District Court, Nye County. The Supreme Court of Nevada dismissed the appeal for failure to prosecute following noncompliance with the court's procedural directives. The court recounted its notice of June 26, 2026, directing appellant to file and serve a transcript request form within 14 days and a docketing statement within 21 days. Appellant did not comply. The court then issued an order on July 24, 2026, directing appellant to file and serve a transcript request form or certificate of no transcript request and the docketing statement by July 31, 2026, and cautioning that failure to timely comply could result in dismissal. Appellant again failed to file the required documents. On this record, the court determined that "it appears appellant has abandoned this appeal" and dismissed the appeal on that basis. The court did not reach the merits of the divorce decree. The order separately granted respondent's motion to discharge her attorney, Ronald Brilliant, and to proceed pro se, and directed the clerk to remove Mr. Brilliant as counsel of record for respondent.

In plain language

This case involves a divorce. James Samuel Short, who was representing himself without a lawyer (referred to in court as "pro se"), tried to appeal the divorce decree - the final court order that legally ends a marriage - that a lower court in Nye County had issued. When someone appeals, the higher court requires certain paperwork to move the case forward. Here, the Supreme Court of Nevada told Short on June 26, 2026, to file two things: a transcript request form (paperwork about obtaining the written record of what was said in the lower court) within 14 days, and a docketing statement (a form giving basic information about the appeal) within 21 days. Short did not file them. The court then gave Short a second chance. On July 24, 2026, it ordered him to file the transcript request form (or a certificate saying no transcript was requested) and the docketing statement by July 31, 2026. The court warned him that if he did not comply on time, his appeal could be dismissed. Short still did not file the documents. Because Short never filed the required paperwork, the court concluded he had abandoned - given up on - his appeal, and it dismissed the case. The court did not decide anything about whether the divorce decree itself was correct or fair; it ended the appeal on procedural grounds only. The order also addressed the other party, Love A Rydes-Short. She had asked the court to let her dismiss her attorney, Ronald Brilliant, and represent herself. The court granted that request and directed the clerk to remove Mr. Brilliant as her lawyer of record.