Top Ten Stories of 2021

  • Law

As 2021 draws to a close, it’s time to take a look back at the top ten stories that affected the Las Vegas legal community this year. Before we do, thanks again for reading, commenting, and offering your input because without you, the blog is dead. As always, we’re open to your suggestions on how we can improve the blog, so if you have any comments, criticisms, ideas, gossip, or want to volunteer to write a guest post, let us know. Here’s wishing you a happy 2022! Maybe we’ll see you again next year! 

Our top ten Las Vegas related legal stories of 2021, in no particular order, are:


10.  The Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline issued decisions with regard to four different judges, only one of which is still on the bench. 

9. Former Judge Melanie Andress-Tobiasson filed a federal civil rights suit against the commission. 
8. The CLE board is now administered by the State Bar of Nevada.
7. Raiders player Henry Ruggs III crashed after going 156 mph and killed Tina Tintor.
6. There were several changes at the RJC with Jay Young taking a seat as Discovery Commissioner and Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez retiring. Ellie Roohani was appointed to fill the vacancy; Judge Cristina Silva and Professor Anne Traum appear headed for the confirmation to the federal bench. Justice Hardesty announced he will not run for reelection at the end of his next term. We also learned, and we won’t name them all here right now, that a number of attorneys are running for elected office next year.
5.On June 1, 2021, Nevada was 100% open again–it was also the day we marked the end of the 2021 legislative session, and mourned the loss of Judge Valerie Adair.  A little over a month later we were back to indoor mask requirements.
4. Since Judge Jennifer Togliatti’s nomination to the federal bench didn’t go through, she got appointed as chair of the Nevada Gaming Commission
3. Fred Steese got a $1.4 million settlement for being wrongfully convicted. 
2. Vaccines became widely available here this year and helped some emerge from their Covid cocoons; the State had a raffle for which vaccination was how you entered
1. In a year of much death (the national Covid tally now over 800,000), two Nevadans who helped shape the state we live in today–Sheldon Adelson and Harry Reid, also passed. We also lost a lot of colleagues:  Bill Terry; Gary Logan; Catherine Ramsey; Daniel Bunin; Roger Wirth; John McGroarty; Michael Wall; James Bilbray; Mark Solomon; Peter Flangas; Don Chairez; Scott Canepa; and others. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list–there were countless others who lost their lives, including staff, family members, friends and pets.  This is just a reminder that life is short and that beyond being lawyers, we are people doing our best to get by. Our condolences go out to all of you who lost someone you care about this year. 

* Honorable Mentions

What do you think? What did we miss? What do you think will be the big stories next year? Which big firm is teetering on the brink? Any judges about to have that meltdown that pushes them into the spotlight? Is the pandemic going to end? Any wild predictions about 2022? Stay tuned….

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Anonymous
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Anonymous
December 30, 2021 5:15 pm

RIP, Bill Terry and Judge John McGroarty Two great, smart men. You are both missed.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
December 30, 2021 5:37 pm

A very large THANK YOU to the admins, QuickDrawMcLaw and LawDawgEsq for running this blog for the rest of us to participate and enjoy

law.dawg
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law.dawg
December 30, 2021 7:16 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Thanks for the kind words! I also very much appreciate all the hard work QD puts into this blawg! I also appreciate the LV legal community and almost all the readers and commenters! Cheers!

Anonymous
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Anonymous
December 30, 2021 8:24 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Seconded.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
December 30, 2021 6:39 pm

insurrection
[ in-suh-rek-shuhn ]
noun
an act or instance of rising in revolt, rebellion, or resistance against civil authority or an established government.

I am a Republican. We can be honest and state that what occurred on January 6th was certainly an act of resistance against civil authority and the established government. In fact a number of the arrested take great pride in stating that their actions were acts of resistance.

law.dawg
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law.dawg
December 30, 2021 7:12 pm

Not today, trolls. Actually, never again on this blawg. We shouldn't have put up with it as long as we did. That was my bad.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
December 30, 2021 8:49 pm
Reply to  law.dawg

Mr. Law Dawg: Never again for what?
P.S. Thanks for all your hard work.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
December 30, 2021 7:54 pm

It looks like Nevada set a record number of Covid cases yesterday, 2783. The largest number before that was 2735 back in July. I haven't heard anything about Nevada hospitals being overwhelmed. Is this finally the end of the pandemic?

Ben Nadig
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Ben Nadig
December 30, 2021 7:56 pm

Happy New Year to everybody. Hopefully we can have a year of big verdicts, unreduced billing, and clients who pay on time. We lost too many people in our little community last year so take care of yourselves and remember that this job is too fucking unimportant in the long run. Have fun, do the right thing, and don't eat yellow snow.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
December 30, 2021 8:09 pm

Nevada Supreme Court strikes down NRS 52.380 as unconstitutional in Lyft v. Davis today.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
December 30, 2021 8:36 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

What is the specific ruling in Lyft v. Davis? I couldn't access it on the Nevada Appellate Courts website (says document is currently unavailable).

Anonymous
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Anonymous
December 30, 2021 8:37 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Interesting. I've had this issue come up several times and most of the times the compromise that no one loved was having counsel from both sides be able to attend. Whatever one thinks of the decision, I think it is a good issue to get clarity on at the very least.
(I agree with the decision in principle as I think an IME should be only the doctor and patient, but I'm not sure that I agree with the way that the NSC got there)

Anonymous
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Anonymous
December 30, 2021 9:21 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

12:37 here. i actually couldn't pull it up at first either.
Essentially, without trying to put a defense or pltf spin on it was meant to govern a conflict of laws on NRCP 35 IME and an NRS from the 2020 session that was conflicting as to who may be present at IME and what kind of recording can occur.

NRCP says no observers, counsel, and limits audio recordings. The subsequent NRS allows examinee's atty to attend and make audio recordings. NRS essentially eliminates the Court’s discretion to control observers and types of recordings.

NSC strikes down NRS 52.380 as unconstitutional and violative of the separation of powers doctrine. Case cited and agrees with D. Nev. Case that says FRCP 35 (which NRCP 35 is obviously based after) supersedes NRS 52.380 which it calls ‘procedural and not substantive.’

The NSC adopting language that the NRS “procedural” rather than ‘substantive law’ is a bit of a slight in my humble opinion. Kind of felt like a bit of a flex to me in the way that they got to the decision.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
December 30, 2021 9:54 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

I've had the same problem with downloading several recent NVSC adv ops. Sometimes it works to go to the case page itself and download from there.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
December 30, 2021 8:41 pm

HUGE decision today in A Cab v. Michael Murray that covered all kinds of issues from minimum wage to Series LLCs to writs of execution.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
December 30, 2021 8:57 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

As well as aggregation of claims for class action consideration.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
December 30, 2021 9:46 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Any place to read it? tried to on the supreme's website and just got an error message.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
December 30, 2021 9:54 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Right click on the link and select "copy link address". Open a new browser tab, paste into address bar and it should download.

Anonymous
Guest
Anonymous
December 30, 2021 10:17 pm

Can folks post the Lyft v. Davis and A Cab v. Michael Murray decision link. Can't find either. The site I suspect is not up to date with the looming holiday.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
December 31, 2021 12:08 am

Those having trouble downloading decisions, I had the same problems, to get it to work I had to download them in an incognito window. Works every time I do that for some reason.

Anonymous
Guest
Anonymous
December 31, 2021 12:51 am

Something's been haywire with NSC download for a few months now. It used to work fine.

Anonymous
Guest
Anonymous
January 3, 2022 9:52 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

It's the way they've implemented reCAPTCHA. It's borked.