What are the Changes in Las Vegas Justice Court’s Jury Award Limits?



What is the best thing about the law? That it changes all the time. What is the worst thing about the law? That it changes all the time! If one thing can be said about the practice of law for your Las Vegas Personal Injury Lawyer, is that she is always being challenged to keep up with the changes in the law. Today’s blog deals with the exciting new developments for personal injury cases in Las Vegas Justice Court. 


In the past, Las Vegas Justice Court and it’s Small Claims counterpart, both had max awards limits of $10,000 per injured person. Starting on January 1, 2017, Las Vegas Justice Court will increase its jurisdictional limit from the present $10,000 to $15,000.  

Small Claims Court will keep its trial award limits of $10,000. Your Las Vegas Personal Injury Attorney will tell you that the benefit of Small Claims Court is that your case will go to trial generally within a few months of filing your lawsuit and trials generally last less than an hour. This is a quick and efficient way to resolve a smaller personal injury claim. However, Small Claims Court does not allow for the award of any attorney’s fees. The great part of Las Vegas Justice Court, is that attorney’s fees can be awarded to the winning party. 

If your Las Vegas Personal Injury Attorney recommends that you should file your case in Justice Court, you will usually have a trial date within 6 months. Trials are also limited to one day. While it takes a little longer to go to trial, as compared to Small Claims Court, the damages limit is $15,000, as compared to the lower $10,000 in Small Claims Court. Justice Court also has the added bonus that the Court can award attorney’s fees and costs. 

If you case has a value of over $15,000, the other option to your Las Vegas Personal Injury Attorney is to file your lawsuit in District Court. Yet, in District Court, special hurdles exist to get to trial, if your case is valued at less than $50,000. In those instances, you have to go through a “non-binding” arbitration program before you ever get to trial. It usually takes about 6 to 9 months to get your arbitration hearing. 

Since this special program is “non-binding”, any party who doesn’t like the Arbitrator’s decision can ask for an actual trial. The additional wait to get a trial, may be up to 6-9 months. So, it could take up to two years to resolve smaller cases. This is why Justice Court is a great new option for smaller Las Vegas Injury Cases. Talk to your Las Vegas Personal Injury Lawyer about which court is best for your case. 

Next time, we will talk about new developments in driverless cars.

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