Vacating a Nevada justice court or small claims judgment

Most money judgments that reach ordinary people in Nevada come out of justice court, not district court — small claims and lower-value civil cases both sit there. When one of those is entered by default, the rule that governs setting it aside is JCRCP 60, not NRCP 60.

The two are close cousins, but knowing which court you are in decides which set of rules and which local practice applies.

A note on sources

Justice courts run on the Justice Court Rules of Civil Procedure (JCRCP), and small claims practice also draws on NRS Chapter 73. This site's Nevada corpus publishes the Nevada Rules of Civil Procedure, which govern district court — so JCRCP and NRS 73 sit outside it.

This page therefore describes the procedure and cites it precisely rather than reproducing text. Nevada's Civil Law Self-Help Center publishes step-by-step material and forms at civillawselfhelpcenter.org, and each justice court publishes its own local rules.

The grounds

JCRCP 60 allows a judge to set aside a default judgment on grounds that include:

• mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect of the party who failed to defend;
• fraud, misrepresentation, or other misconduct by the party who filed the case;
• the judgment has been satisfied, released, or discharged; and
• the summons and complaint were never personally served on the defendant against whom judgment was entered.

That last one is the most important in practice and the least used. It is not an appeal to the court's sympathy — it is a factual assertion that the process which produced the judgment never reached you.

Where that is the position, the argument is that the judgment should not stand at all, rather than that you have a good excuse for missing it.

Timing, and the two things you must show

A motion is typically brought within six months, mirroring the district court period under NRCP 60(b) — and the district court rule sets that period expressly, with the clock running from the later of the proceeding or service of written notice of entry. See setting aside a Nevada default judgment for how that timing works in district court, including the separate route under NRCP 60(d)(2) for a defendant who was never personally served.

Beyond timing, two things carry the motion:

A meritorious defence. The court is being asked to reopen a case, so it wants to know there is something to try. Say what your defence actually is.

Promptness. Acting quickly once you learned of the judgment matters independently of the outer deadline. A motion filed the week you discovered a garnishment reads very differently from one filed four months later.

How to bring it

Relief comes by motion — a formal written request filed with the court that entered the judgment. It is not a letter, and it is not a phone call to the clerk.

A workable motion does five things:

1. identifies the case and the judgment by date;
2. states when and how you learned of the judgment;
3. states the ground — excusable neglect, no personal service, satisfaction, fraud;
4. sets out the meritorious defence; and
5. attaches whatever supports it — the return of service, proof of payment, correspondence.

Justice courts vary in their local practice on hearings and forms, so the court's own self-help materials and local rules are worth checking before filing.

Small claims is more informal — the judgment is not

Small claims procedure in Nevada is deliberately relaxed compared with ordinary justice court. That informality does not extend to the judgment: a small claims judgment is enforceable like any other, and it is what supports a later garnishment or bank levy.

So a small claims defendant who never appeared faces the same practical problem as anyone else, and the same route out.

If the judgment is producing a garnishment now

Two things can run in parallel, and usually should:

• the motion to set aside, attacking the judgment itself; and
• an exemption claim against the collection, protecting benefit income and other exempt funds while the motion is pending.

A motion to set aside does not by itself stop collection.

If the case is a summary eviction

Summary eviction runs on NRS 40.253 and is a different animal — the tenant has to file an affidavit by the fifth judicial day after service of the notice, and doing nothing produces an order without further notice. That procedure is covered in responding to a Nevada summary eviction.

How Nevada compares

A short checklist

1. Work out which court entered the judgment. Justice court runs on JCRCP; district court on NRCP.
2. Find the date of the judgment and the date notice of entry was served. Both matter to timing.
3. Move promptly — promptness is weighed independently of the outer period.
4. Check the return of service first. If you were never personally served, that is the strongest ground and it does not depend on your excuse.
5. State a meritorious defence. A motion that only explains the absence rarely succeeds.
6. File a motion, with supporting documents attached, in the court that entered the judgment.
7. Check the court's local rules and self-help forms — justice court practice varies by township.
8. Protect exempt income separately while the motion is pending; the motion alone does not stop collection.

Where these rules live

• NRCP 55 — Default; Default Judgment
• NRCP 60 — Relief from a judgment or order
• NRCP 6 — Computing and Extending Time
• NRCP 4 — Process
• Official material: the Justice Court Rules of Civil Procedure and NRS Chapter 73, together with the self-help guidance published at civillawselfhelpcenter.org.

This page explains how the procedure works. It isn't legal advice. The Justice Court Rules of Civil Procedure and NRS Chapter 73 sit outside this site's Nevada corpus, which publishes the Nevada Rules of Civil Procedure; confirm the current rule text, deadlines and local practice with the court that entered the judgment before relying on this page.