Administrative Order 20-09 details discovery changes and 20-10 says no more paper filings in the Eighth Judicial District Court. [eighthjdcourt blog]
Governor Sisolak signs executive directive on public meetings during the time of Stay at Home for Nevada. [NVhealthresponse.nv.gov]
A Boyd law professor says Governor Sisolak’s shutdown actions are on firm legal ground. [RJ]
Pahrump attorney Carl M. Joerger talks about practicing law in the time of COVID-19. [PVTimes]
After Las Vegas City Attorney Brad Jerbic initially indicated the City would not enforce the closure of nonessential businesses, it appears that AG Aaron Ford helped him reach a different conclusion. [RJ]
Attorneys urge ICE to release non-mandatory detainees. [TNI]
As some of you were discussing in the comments, the State Bar of Nevada told attorneys to stay home and now the article is gone. Keep an eye on this situation as it develops.
As more and more people get COVID-19, it is increasingly likely it will affect someone we know. While our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected, news of one person who got it particularly hits home. David Lat, founder of Above the Law, has a confirmed case and as of Friday, was in critical condition in a the hospital on a ventilator. Lat is 44 years old, runs marathons, and has exercise-induced asthma. You can read about his difficulty getting tested on Twitter. It’s a good reminder that this can affect any of us. Get well soon, David! [Law.com]
So, will liberals now label Sisolack as a fascist? Interesting that "fascist" Trump told the governors they should proceed as they deem necessary. The right thing for Sissolack was to let the counties to decide. The counties, in turn, should have left it to the citizens. Concentration of power is not only dangerous, but also just makes things worse, and so we proceed down the road to serfdom.
Now Sisolack, looking for cover before it blows up, is starting to blame the federal government. Solutions now. Politics later. I don't want to hear a bunch of BS hindsight from talking heads and politicians as this progresses. It's a bad situation and the political class casting blame makes it worse.
The lives of viruses are just as valid as humans, and they do not emit CO2, so there. Checkmate.
Guest
Anonymous
March 23, 2020 4:14 pm
Shut up. Your tin foil hat isn't going to work this time.
Guest
Anonymous
March 23, 2020 4:20 pm
A client has three small restaurants here in the valley. He closed all three of them early last week and donated all perishables to a food bank. His revenue is now zero but he plans to continue to pay his rent and utilities for as long as he can. His insurance policy covers "business interruption". Can he recover his lost profits under this coverage? Is anyone pursuing this?
Actually it probably will never end up being a bad faith lawsuit. Most business interruption insurance has excepted virus from coverage. Being shut down by the government generally will be a covered claim; virus is usually an express exception.
9:20–the issue, I believe, is a lot more complex and multi-layered than whether or not he can, via insurance coverage, recover for lost profits.
I think the more practical concern is that even if there is coverage, and even if that coverage were to extend to lost profits, many service-driven business, including successful ones, would not benefit too much if they are restricted to their lost profits on paper.
Many service-related businesses with a large cash-revenue stream, including successful restaurants, go to great pains to classify certain matters as over-head or operational expenses, which are arguably not, and therefore also demonstrate minimal "profit" for IRS purposes.
And a lot of this creative accounting is deemed acceptable for IRS purposes, or at least in the clear majority of cases such business do not attract real IRS scrutiny(particularly if they file on time, and through a CPA, and all necessary completed business attachments are provided, etc.)
And we can also not ignore that a great deal of these types of businesses that are successful are only successful due to the fact of a large undeclared cash element to the business.
So, if we speak of compensation for "profits", if such coverage exists it would be for the somewhat modest profits many service-driven companies declare on paper, rather than their actual, real life profit.
Now I do recognize that in a real sense my view point would have a lot more application a decade or two ago, as some people will not pay cash for anything anymore, and thus there is a written record of all charges. The guy who does your yard work or repairs appliances at your house, may still insist on cash whenever he can, but businesses like restaurants now include a customer base that is almost entirely credit or debit driven.
So, in some real sense, the issue of undeclared cash income, is, by necessity, presumably far less common that ten years ago or so, as to the restaurant business. Thus they are now forced to declare most of their actual income, but may still attempt to be somewhat creative with overhead and operating expenses classifications.
Guest
Anonymous
March 23, 2020 4:38 pm
I'm licensed in Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. Not a major scholar for sure but I have written one article and filed an appeal regarding State Bars. Preempting any trolls, I'm not saying I'm the end all of bar knowledge but perhaps a little more than some. My point: The Nevada State Bar is among the lowest for service, unbiased actions (non-political), and proactive leadership. Although my work was a couple years ago, it reminded me when I see how frustrated attorneys are up your way (I'm in Phoenix now) with no leadership from the Bar re the Pandemic. You all apparently don't even know if you are supposed to stay open and some selfish firms appear to be requiring staff to come in. Whenever the Nevada Bar emails or speaks, I am reminded of the Billy Madison movie (copied here): "What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul." Good luck friends and stay safe.
The SBN is devoid of any leadership or real assistance. Commensurate with the amount of bar dues compared to other states (I am a member of 3 other states), our State Bar is ridiculous. I get daily emails from the State Bar of Arizona regarding crisis management. SBN put up a single article that was wrong and has offered nothing else.
There's a large box on the state bar's homepage now, leading to: https://www.nvbar.org/covid-19-update/ – also got another email from them this afternoon.
Would it kill them to just say "The bar recognizes law firms are essential – here's some tips for remaining open in these challenging times."
Guest
Anonymous
March 23, 2020 7:55 pm
Who is getting a kick back on pimping law clerk, the software at the state bar, Jesus.
Guest
Anonymous
March 23, 2020 8:28 pm
I have underlying conditions. Trump wants people to go back to work next week. I am honestly terrified for my life, and for my family. He's apparently getting these talking points from Fox News. Fox News is making life and death decisions for all of us. This is a nightmare.
Sorry to hear this. I have close family members with serious underlying conditions and am scared for them. Hopefully you are in a position to self-isolate if we, as a state and country, cannot be bothered to take reasonable steps to stop the spread of this disease.
While I do not agree with your political points, I wish you well and suggest you worry less about politics and Trump and take personal responsibility for your family. I realize I am fortunate to have enough resources to get out of town and my wife and I and my two boys moved to a small rural area in Cali. I understand this may not be available to all but my point is whether lib or conservative or whoever – take your own path and be safe. I wish you and your family well.
1:28, Pree4sident Trump is certainly to blame for your underlying health issues and for the Wuhan Virus itself. He was working in the White house basement to formulate and design the virus, and then he dropped it into Wuhan. It is all his fault.
The only thing that I blame President Trump for is allowing this complete shut-down of the American economy and the mass panic. We've all heard that the First Amendment does not protect yelling "Fire" in a crowded theater, and that is what the media has been doing, to our destruction. Over a bad flu-like disease.
1:28, although I disagree with your blaming President Trump for the situation we are now in, I wish you and your family the best.
Had Trump been honest about the moderate severity of this situation from the beginning, and not maintained the line that this was "nothing" (all the way up until last Monday afternoon), most of the public would not have run to reports that the sky was falling. This is the inherent issue with having a president who insists on lying about minutia for no reason and who actively tries to alienate large portions of the population. Likely, these are the things that you like about him; however, these are also the characteristics that give rise to uncertainty, which then turns into mass panic in times of emergency. Regardless of how much you would like to make this a partisan issue of us vs. them, this is nothing more than a credibility issue.
Behavior has consequences. This should really not be news to anyone, especially in this profession.
Guest
Anonymous
March 23, 2020 8:51 pm
Hmmmmm.
"Please be advised the Las Vegas District Court, Clark County has closed several departments due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) precautions, they will be closed until further notice. The Departments closed include: 1, 10, 12, 14, 29, 30, and the entire 14th floor."
I assume you are employer side. If not, much of this will still apply.
Do your best work right now. If you work for any rainmakers, stay on their good sides. If you are invaluable to someone who will be busy enough to have work to go around in a recession you will be much safer.
Not a lot you can do right now besides do good work, bill as many hours as possible, and brush up on your substantive knowledge.
For your practice area, you should be slammed right now. Every L&E attorney I know is getting crushed counseling clients through this. That will end soon. At that point the workload is going to shift from counseling work to defending against wage & hour and discrimination claims. Make sure you're brushed up on this. For example, you might want to brush up on how discrimination claims arise out of facially neutral layoffs, claims for unpaid wages, etc. Know your FLSA exemptions cold. Lots of employers now trying to make due with less and many will be inclined to misclassify employees as exempt.
Hang in there. Collect unemployment and whatever other gibmedat's they offer. Don't quit. While there, keep billing and serving your clients. My two cents.
Guest
Anonymous
March 23, 2020 10:52 pm
quit first
Guest
Connie Jochran
March 24, 2020 12:34 pm
David Lat, a Yale law graduate who has exercise induced asthma is now on a ventilator due to corona virus! You cant make this stuff up. Darwin award winner for sure.
So, will liberals now label Sisolack as a fascist? Interesting that "fascist" Trump told the governors they should proceed as they deem necessary. The right thing for Sissolack was to let the counties to decide. The counties, in turn, should have left it to the citizens. Concentration of power is not only dangerous, but also just makes things worse, and so we proceed down the road to serfdom.
Now Sisolack, looking for cover before it blows up, is starting to blame the federal government. Solutions now. Politics later. I don't want to hear a bunch of BS hindsight from talking heads and politicians as this progresses. It's a bad situation and the political class casting blame makes it worse.
Do you think government should leave the choice of whether to drive intoxicated "to the citizens," 9:06?
9:06 courageously advocating for the freedom of the grave.
The lives of viruses are just as valid as humans, and they do not emit CO2, so there. Checkmate.
Shut up. Your tin foil hat isn't going to work this time.
A client has three small restaurants here in the valley. He closed all three of them early last week and donated all perishables to a food bank. His revenue is now zero but he plans to continue to pay his rent and utilities for as long as he can. His insurance policy covers "business interruption". Can he recover his lost profits under this coverage? Is anyone pursuing this?
Unless your policy has a specific provision related to virus or other epidemic, business interruption usually will not pay absent property damage.
This will end up being a gigantic bad faith class action. Watch.
Actually it probably will never end up being a bad faith lawsuit. Most business interruption insurance has excepted virus from coverage. Being shut down by the government generally will be a covered claim; virus is usually an express exception.
So this is good to go then? Very few places are just down due to "virus;" most are shut down because the government ordered them to.
9:53– You would have to read the client's specific policy.
Most CGL / BO policies have a "communicable" disease exclusion.
Good article here: https://www.law.com/2020/03/12/coronavirus-business-and-legal-implications/?slreturn=20200223130930
9:20–the issue, I believe, is a lot more complex and multi-layered than whether or not he can, via insurance coverage, recover for lost profits.
I think the more practical concern is that even if there is coverage, and even if that coverage were to extend to lost profits, many service-driven business, including successful ones, would not benefit too much if they are restricted to their lost profits on paper.
Many service-related businesses with a large cash-revenue stream, including successful restaurants, go to great pains to classify certain matters as over-head or operational expenses, which are arguably not, and therefore also demonstrate minimal "profit" for IRS purposes.
And a lot of this creative accounting is deemed acceptable for IRS purposes, or at least in the clear majority of cases such business do not attract real IRS scrutiny(particularly if they file on time, and through a CPA, and all necessary completed business attachments are provided, etc.)
And we can also not ignore that a great deal of these types of businesses that are successful are only successful due to the fact of a large undeclared cash element to the business.
So, if we speak of compensation for "profits", if such coverage exists it would be for the somewhat modest profits many service-driven companies declare on paper, rather than their actual, real life profit.
Now I do recognize that in a real sense my view point would have a lot more application a decade or two ago, as some people will not pay cash for anything anymore, and thus there is a written record of all charges. The guy who does your yard work or repairs appliances at your house, may still insist on cash whenever he can, but businesses like restaurants now include a customer base that is almost entirely credit or debit driven.
So, in some real sense, the issue of undeclared cash income, is, by necessity, presumably far less common that ten years ago or so, as to the restaurant business. Thus they are now forced to declare most of their actual income, but may still attempt to be somewhat creative with overhead and operating expenses classifications.
I'm licensed in Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. Not a major scholar for sure but I have written one article and filed an appeal regarding State Bars. Preempting any trolls, I'm not saying I'm the end all of bar knowledge but perhaps a little more than some. My point: The Nevada State Bar is among the lowest for service, unbiased actions (non-political), and proactive leadership. Although my work was a couple years ago, it reminded me when I see how frustrated attorneys are up your way (I'm in Phoenix now) with no leadership from the Bar re the Pandemic. You all apparently don't even know if you are supposed to stay open and some selfish firms appear to be requiring staff to come in. Whenever the Nevada Bar emails or speaks, I am reminded of the Billy Madison movie (copied here): "What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul." Good luck friends and stay safe.
The SBN is devoid of any leadership or real assistance. Commensurate with the amount of bar dues compared to other states (I am a member of 3 other states), our State Bar is ridiculous. I get daily emails from the State Bar of Arizona regarding crisis management. SBN put up a single article that was wrong and has offered nothing else.
SBN as an entity and not constituent members is:
1. Uninformed—> no idea what they should do
2. Lazy—> won't even cut and paste from California, Washington or NY Bar associations
3. No leadership—> See 1 & 2.
Thank you, 9:38.
There's a large box on the state bar's homepage now, leading to: https://www.nvbar.org/covid-19-update/ – also got another email from them this afternoon.
Would it kill them to just say "The bar recognizes law firms are essential – here's some tips for remaining open in these challenging times."
Who is getting a kick back on pimping law clerk, the software at the state bar, Jesus.
I have underlying conditions. Trump wants people to go back to work next week. I am honestly terrified for my life, and for my family. He's apparently getting these talking points from Fox News. Fox News is making life and death decisions for all of us. This is a nightmare.
Sorry to hear this. I have close family members with serious underlying conditions and am scared for them. Hopefully you are in a position to self-isolate if we, as a state and country, cannot be bothered to take reasonable steps to stop the spread of this disease.
While I do not agree with your political points, I wish you well and suggest you worry less about politics and Trump and take personal responsibility for your family. I realize I am fortunate to have enough resources to get out of town and my wife and I and my two boys moved to a small rural area in Cali. I understand this may not be available to all but my point is whether lib or conservative or whoever – take your own path and be safe. I wish you and your family well.
1:28, Pree4sident Trump is certainly to blame for your underlying health issues and for the Wuhan Virus itself. He was working in the White house basement to formulate and design the virus, and then he dropped it into Wuhan. It is all his fault.
The only thing that I blame President Trump for is allowing this complete shut-down of the American economy and the mass panic. We've all heard that the First Amendment does not protect yelling "Fire" in a crowded theater, and that is what the media has been doing, to our destruction. Over a bad flu-like disease.
1:28, although I disagree with your blaming President Trump for the situation we are now in, I wish you and your family the best.
Had Trump been honest about the moderate severity of this situation from the beginning, and not maintained the line that this was "nothing" (all the way up until last Monday afternoon), most of the public would not have run to reports that the sky was falling. This is the inherent issue with having a president who insists on lying about minutia for no reason and who actively tries to alienate large portions of the population. Likely, these are the things that you like about him; however, these are also the characteristics that give rise to uncertainty, which then turns into mass panic in times of emergency. Regardless of how much you would like to make this a partisan issue of us vs. them, this is nothing more than a credibility issue.
Behavior has consequences. This should really not be news to anyone, especially in this profession.
Hmmmmm.
"Please be advised the Las Vegas District Court, Clark County has closed several departments due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) precautions, they will be closed until further notice. The Departments closed include: 1, 10, 12, 14, 29, 30, and the entire 14th floor."
That would be Courtroom 16A, 15A and the entire 14th Floor.
Dept. 1 – Cory
Dept. 10 – T. Jones
Dept. 12 – Leavitt
Dept. 14 – Escobar
Dept. 29 – D. Jones
Dept. 30 – Wiese
What's the source of this? Any official notice? 1:51 appears to be directly quoting something, but what?
Nationwide Legal sent this out to all of its clients.
But law firms are essential, I guess the judges don't know how to read either.
Nationwide Legal has just rescinded its email and said that it was wrong. Lovely.
Has anyone heard about layoffs at firms? I'm a new associate and terrified. What can young associates do to increase the odds they aren't laid off?
What area of law?
Litigation and labor/employment.
Yes, Henness Haight is laying off. I thought I heard Moss Berg is letting go or cutting pay.
I assume you are employer side. If not, much of this will still apply.
Do your best work right now. If you work for any rainmakers, stay on their good sides. If you are invaluable to someone who will be busy enough to have work to go around in a recession you will be much safer.
Not a lot you can do right now besides do good work, bill as many hours as possible, and brush up on your substantive knowledge.
For your practice area, you should be slammed right now. Every L&E attorney I know is getting crushed counseling clients through this. That will end soon. At that point the workload is going to shift from counseling work to defending against wage & hour and discrimination claims. Make sure you're brushed up on this. For example, you might want to brush up on how discrimination claims arise out of facially neutral layoffs, claims for unpaid wages, etc. Know your FLSA exemptions cold. Lots of employers now trying to make due with less and many will be inclined to misclassify employees as exempt.
One more small suggestion: bone up on WARN Act and how these crises impact the massive layoffs that are coming.
Hang in there. Collect unemployment and whatever other gibmedat's they offer. Don't quit. While there, keep billing and serving your clients. My two cents.
quit first
David Lat, a Yale law graduate who has exercise induced asthma is now on a ventilator due to corona virus! You cant make this stuff up. Darwin award winner for sure.