The Frayed Ends Of Sanity

  • Law

  • Governor Sisolak declared a state of emergency. [Las Vegas Sun]
  • Are Nevada hospitals prepared for COVID-19? [Nevada Current]
  • Judge Rob Bare ruled that Metro can keep and search the phone of the Alpine Motel Apartments landlord. [RJ]
  • From the comments yesterday, it looks like Department 16 (Judge Timothy Williams) is ordering telephonic appearances only. Anyone else seeing anything like this yet? Any firms give the work from home order yet?
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 13, 2020 5:55 pm

I heard Judge Aalf shut down her department until 3/23?

anonymous
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anonymous
March 13, 2020 8:24 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

yes. everything telephonic for the next two weeks.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 13, 2020 6:33 pm

Allf is on vacation.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 13, 2020 6:51 pm

Leadership decision making at the district court level appears to be non-existent.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 13, 2020 7:37 pm

+1 to the blogmasters for the Metallica reference!

anonymous
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anonymous
March 13, 2020 8:28 pm

I think it is highly irresponsible not to shut down the RJC and Family Court buildings. There is very little going on down there that is of such importance that it can't just wait for a couple of weeks, or be done telephonically if it is something absolutely vital.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 13, 2020 8:53 pm
Reply to  anonymous

It is Steve Grierdon, come on.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 13, 2020 9:18 pm

My office is going to close and have everyone work remotely.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 13, 2020 9:49 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Which office?

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 13, 2020 9:19 pm

Department of Adminstration just changed to telephonic hearings statewide. Also switching to electronic filing.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 13, 2020 9:33 pm

I want to second the reference to Metallica – it was mentioned yesterday and I'm glad to see Blogmaster listening, and not to overkill the point, I say: "Only way to feel the noise is when it's good and loud."

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 13, 2020 9:53 pm

So what happens when the flu hits next year? Yes folks, I'm calling this the flu, the same annual flu that puts our elderly and health-compromised folks at risk every year. Why is this year any different?…Because we have labelled the Corona virus as being the cooties? Ridiculous. Stay clean, wash hands, move on with life. Done. This media hype and powers-that-be shutdown decision frenzy is reckless, killing our economy, and freaking people out (get the heck out of my TP aisle). Those in charge need to chill-out and resist the woke for Corona whirlwind of panic…their minds are off to never-never land (sorry, had a Metallica moment).

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 13, 2020 9:58 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Sad but true

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 13, 2020 10:02 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Besides being more lethal than the flu, with almost no testing kits available, and no vaccine or antivirals available, sure, it's just the flu.

I agree that the panic is a little overblown, but let's not underblow it either.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 13, 2020 10:07 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Excellent reference 2:58. But to respond to 2:53, why is this different? This is different because it is somewhere between 7 and 30 times more deadly than the flu based on numbers I've seen. This is different because it requires hospitalization at a rate that hospitals can't handle. I saw a "data/facts" thing from a friend on The FaceSnap who was saying this isn't a big deal based on data showing that 81% of cases are mild. Sounds OK at first blush, but the other two bars in the chart showed that the other 19% of cases require hospitalization. Think about that. Nineteen percent of people who catch this thing have to be hospitalized. How many ventilators do you think there are in Clark County? This has the capacity to kill hundreds of thousands just in the US alone, especially if the hospitals are log jammed with everybody at once like in Italy.

On the flipside, I'm really curious to see air quality/carbon/greenhouse gas data from the next few months.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 13, 2020 10:21 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

A couple weeks ago, when things were still in the amusing stage, there was a meme about how "now we'll finally see how many of these meetings could have been done through email after all." Maybe this will result in some real eye-opening as to how stupid our office lives are in the modern era, and how much really could be done from home.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 13, 2020 10:44 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

I blew this virus off as nothing– it is a bad cold/flu which we deal with every year. I was sent materials today from an epidemiological conference on COVID conducted this week. These are not doom and gloomers– these are people who study this stuff. It mirrors pretty closely what Anthony Fauci has been saying.

o At this point, we are past containment. Containment is basically futile. Our containment efforts won’t reduce the number who get infected in the US because we are not trying to stop something outside coming in; it is already here and in.
o Now we’re just trying to slow the spread, to help healthcare providers deal with the demand peak. In other words, the goal of containment is to "flatten the curve", to lower the peak of the surge of demand that will hit healthcare providers. And to buy time, in hopes a drug(s) can be developed.
o How many in the community already have the virus? No one knows. Impossible to know.
o We are moving from containment to care.
o We in the US are currently where at where Italy was a week ago. We see nothing to say we will be substantially different.
o 40-70% of the US population will be infected over the next 12-18 months. After that level you can start to get herd immunity. There is no latent immunity in the global population.
o Guesstimate of deaths— indicating about 1.5 million Americans may die. This compares to seasonal flu’s average of 50K Americans per year. Assume 50% of US population contract, that’s 160M people infected. With 1% mortality rate that's 1.6M Americans die over the next 12-18 months. CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9 million – 45 million illnesses, between 140,000 – 810,000 hospitalizations and around 50,000 estimated deaths annually since 2010. The fatality rate is in the range of 10X flu. This assumes no drug is found effective and made available.
o The death rate varies hugely by age. Over age 80 the mortality rate could be 10-15%.
o Don’t know whether COVID-19 is seasonal but if is and subsides over the summer, it is likely to roar back in fall as the 1918 Spanish Flu did.
o Definitively it’s going to get worse before it gets better. And we'll be dealing with this for the next year at least. Dr. Fauci stated today that an optimal response would result in a peak in 8-10 weeks. A bad path would mean that a peak is months off.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 13, 2020 10:46 pm

3:21 wins. Celebrating with several 8oz Coronita, guac and chips.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 13, 2020 11:09 pm

I just got an email from the Bar on Corona virus: "…the Bar will continue to operate and deliver the quality services our members and the public have come to expect…" hahahaha wow I'm crying and my side hurts hahahaha do they really believe that, tears are literally on my face, bunch of delusional …

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 13, 2020 11:17 pm

Do you think the coronavirus will affect jobs for lawyers meaning lawyers getting laid off?

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 15, 2020 7:26 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

I think we are likely looking at a serious recession. I think that recession is likely to be international, but that Las Vegas will be hit particularly hard. Look at convention cancellations, night club closings, etc. What that means for lawyers probably depends on the lawyer. My guess is its not going to be a great time to be a corporate transactions attorney but if your specialty is restructuring work things will look differently.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 16, 2020 4:36 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

4:17 here. I'm in ID.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 14, 2020 1:47 am

Order just issued continuing all trials and having routine hearings by telephonic means, rescheduled or on the pleadings. .

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 14, 2020 1:59 am
Reply to  Anonymous

Fed or state court?

Anonymous
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Anonymous
March 14, 2020 2:42 am
Reply to  Anonymous

State court. Here's a link:
https://bit.ly/2QglZDP

Unknown
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Unknown
March 16, 2020 3:36 pm

Nevada Eighth Judicial District Order Halts Jury Trials, Implements Telephonic Hearings And Implements Other Measures To Protect Community
https://wp.me/p1tnuA-1Fj