SOVEY VS. SOVEY (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). Reviewing the notice of appeal, the court identified a jurisdictional defect: no statute or court rule authorizes an appeal from a district court order denying a motion for the production of transcripts at county expense. The court accordingly dismissed for lack of appellate jurisdiction without reaching the merits.

In plain language

Jacob Sovey asked a Washoe County family court to give him copies of court transcripts paid for by the county. The district court said no. He then tried to appeal that denial to the Nevada Supreme Court without a lawyer. The Supreme Court did not decide whether the family court was right or wrong to deny the transcripts. Instead, it concluded it had no power to hear the appeal in the first place. In Nevada, the Supreme Court can only review the kinds of decisions that a statute or court rule specifically allows it to review. The court found that no statute and no court rule lets a person appeal an order refusing to provide transcripts at county expense. Because the court lacked jurisdiction - meaning the legal authority to decide the case - it dismissed the appeal.