The highest courts in Nevada with a primary responsibility to review and rule on appeals from District Court cases.
The Nevada Supreme Court is the state's highest court and its primary responsibility is to review and rule on appeals from District Court cases. The court does not conduct fact-finding trials; rather, the justices determine if legal or procedural errors were committed during the case. The Supreme Court is funded almost equally from the state general fund and from administrative assessments. The Supreme Court has seven justices.
The Nevada Court of Appeals is assigned to hear roughly one-third of all cases submitted to the Nevada Supreme Court in a deflective model, where the Supreme Court assigns cases to the three-judge Court of Appeals.
Together these courts make up the Nevada Appellate Courts.
The primary constitutional function of the Supreme Court is to review appeals from decisions of the District Courts. The Supreme Court determines if legal errors were committed that require reversal or if evidence was sufficient to support the trial court judgment or order. The Court may affirm, modify or reverse the judgment or order that was appealed.
In many cases the Supreme Court corrects error or affirms the law by issuing written "opinions" giving its reasons for the decisions. These opinions, which interpret the law and define statutes, are a major source for the laws that govern Nevada. The opinions of the Supreme Court are published annually as the Nevada Reports.
The Supreme Court has other important responsibilities, such as establishing committees to study and recommend improvements in Nevada's judicial system. Another significant duty of the Supreme Court is its supervision of the legal profession - both with regard to the admission of new lawyers and the imposition of discipline for lawyers who have violated the rules governing their professional conduct. The Justices also sit as commissioners of the state's Board of Pardons.
