Nevada Case Law Research Guide

This guide helps you learn how to find Nevada court decisions, especially from the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. It shows how to find these decisions in books and online. Not all decisions are published in print, but you can still find some online. For more details on Nevada case law, check out the Nevada Primary Sources guide.

The purpose of this guide is to offer methods and strategies for researching Nevada judicial opinions using online and print resources. For simplicity, this guide will use the words opinions, case law, and decisions interchangeably. 

This guide focuses on HOW to research Nevada case law. For a more descriptive guide of Nevada case law publication, check out the Nevada Primary Sources guide.

The Nevada Judicial system is one of the three parts of the state government. Nevada courts help understand laws and make sure the other parts of government (the Executive and Legislative branches) are fair. The chart below shows how Nevada's courts are organized, what kinds of cases they can handle, and how people can appeal decisions.

Need help locating a Nevada court? 

The following is a sample case citation for a Nevada Supreme Court opinion as published in the Nevada Reports (Nev.) and the Pacific Reporter (P.3d).

Parts of the citation are in different colors to help illustrate the different parts of a citation. Each part is labeled with a different letter. Explanations for each part are below the sample citation and correspond with the letter assigned in the graphic.