WILLIAMS VS. MOBLEY WILLIAMS (FAMILY)

Key holdings

Practitioner summary

The court dismissed the appeal under NRAP 3(a)(2) for failure to pay the filing fee required by NRAP 3(e) or, alternatively, to demonstrate compliance with the in forma pauperis procedures of NRAP 24. After docketing on September 5, 2024, the clerk issued a 7-day notice to cure, advising that noncompliance would result in dismissal. The appellant neither paid the fee nor responded, and the court entered an order of dismissal. The order does not reach the merits of the underlying family-division proceedings before Hon. Dedree Butler.

In plain language

When someone files an appeal with the Nevada Supreme Court, the court charges a filing fee. If the person filing cannot afford the fee, there is a separate procedure to ask the court to waive it. In this case, the appellant, David Michael Williams, filed his appeal but did not pay the fee and did not file the paperwork needed to have the fee waived. The same day the appeal was docketed, the court sent a notice giving him 7 days either to pay the fee or to follow the waiver procedure. The notice warned that if he did neither, his appeal would be thrown out. He did not respond. The court therefore dismissed the appeal. This is a procedural dismissal; the court did not rule on any of the underlying issues in the family-law dispute.