Nevada family-law case summaries

Adam and Sandy Goldstein married in April 2011 and went through divorce and child custody proceedings beginning in 2019 after Sandy filed for divorce and custody. The case was split into two parts (a "bifurcated" trial): a custody trial in May 2021 and a financial trial in September 2021. In May 2022, the district court awarded Sandy primary physical custody and permission to move with the children to Colorado, finding that Adam had opposed the relocation in bad faith. The court also found that Adam had made unsubstantiated claims that Sandy was an alcoholic, withheld parenting time from Sandy, influenced one of the children's testimony, and made an unsubstantiated claim of educational neglect to gain an advantage. The court issued a separate divorce decree on financial issues that included alimony for Adam. Adam did not appeal any of those orders. After those rulings, both parties asked for attorney fees. Sandy requested fees under a Nevada statute and argued that Adam's bad-faith conduct drove up the cost of the litigation. The district court denied Adam's request and granted Sandy's. The court reasoned that the attorney fees were a "community obligation" (a shared marital debt) and that it could divide that debt unequally because Adam had engaged in improper litigation tactics that wasted shared marital assets. After Sandy submitted billing records seeking $194,861.25, the court reduced that figure—cutting certain "block billing" entries it could not allocate, reducing the custody-trial fees by 30 percent, and reducing the total by another 20 percent for time spent supervising a junior attorney—and awarded $124,627.12. On appeal, the Court of Appeals agreed with Adam on one point: the attorney fees should not have been treated as a community obligation. Drawing on prior Nevada cases, the court explained that debt incurred after spouses separate, and not for the benefit of the marriage, is not community debt. Because these fees were incurred after separation and did not benefit the community, the district court could not use that as the basis for the award. However, the Court of Appeals affirmed anyway. Under the rule that an appellate court will uphold a lower court's decision if it reached the right result even for the wrong reason, the court looked to a different legal basis that Sandy had raised below: a statute allowing fees against a party who brings or maintains claims without reasonable grounds or to harass the other party. The district court had already made detailed written findings that Adam pursued frivolous and bad-faith positions—on relocation, the alcoholism allegation, withholding the children, and influencing a child's testimony. Importantly, the Court of Appeals noted that Adam, in his reply brief, conceded that those findings were the type that would support a fee award under that statute. Because Sandy was the prevailing party and the findings supporting a fee award were backed by substantial evidence, the court held the fee award could stand. The court also rejected Adam's arguments that the district court ignored the income disparity between the parties and that the amount awarded was unreasonable. The record showed the court did consider income—finding the parties had essentially equal net income after accounting for Sandy's rental and travel costs versus Adam's low housing expenses, and noting Adam received alimony—and that the court applied the established factors for setting a reasonable fee amount and explained its reductions.

Conrad and Heidi Roberson divorced after Heidi filed in 2018. They have two children, G.R. (born 2006) and J.R. (born 2010). Their case went to trial in 2021, but on the fourth day of trial they reached what they called a "full and final" settlement and read the terms into the record. Part of the deal was that Heidi would move to Arizona with the children, and they agreed this relocation was in the children's best interest. The parties agreed that Heidi's attorney would write the proposed divorce decree, Conrad's attorney would suggest edits, and the judge would settle any disagreements. Early in the settlement hearing, Conrad's attorney had said relocation was agreed "so long as the children are okay with it," but later in the same hearing both parties agreed—without any such condition—that Heidi would move to Arizona with the children. The court entered the divorce decree in October 2021. Conrad did not appeal it or object at the time. Just days before Heidi's planned December 2021 move, Conrad filed motions arguing that the children's consent to relocation was a required condition (a "condition precedent") that had been left out of the decree, and that the older child, G.R., did not want to move. Heidi moved to Arizona with the younger child, J.R., but G.R. refused to get into the car. The parties agreed G.R. could finish the school year in Nevada. Later disputes led the district court to grant Heidi's emergency motion, and G.R. was sent to live with her in Arizona. The district court denied Conrad's motions. It found the decree did not leave out any essential term, that it did not have to analyze the "best interest" factors because the parties had stipulated their agreement was in the children's best interest, and that Conrad had not made a preliminary ("prima facie") case that circumstances had changed enough to justify modifying custody of G.R. On appeal, the Court of Appeals reached two different results. First, it agreed with the district court that the children's consent was never actually part of the parties' agreement. The court noted Conrad relied on a single sentence taken out of context and that Conrad himself never proposed adding a consent-condition to the decree while the parties were exchanging drafts—the only real dispute was over the timing of the move. So the court affirmed the refusal to change the decree. Second, the court disagreed with how the district court handled the request to modify custody of G.R. Conrad had alleged that G.R., then 15, refused to relocate and wanted to stay in Nevada through high school, and he supported those allegations with a declaration. Under the governing standard, a court must accept such specific allegations as true when deciding whether to hold an evidentiary hearing. The court concluded these allegations, if proven, could show a substantial change in circumstances, and that the district court should have held an evidentiary hearing and considered G.R.'s wishes (G.R. was available to testify). The court stressed it was expressing no opinion on whether Conrad should ultimately win—only that a hearing was required first. It left the current custody arrangement in place pending further proceedings.

Dimonaco and Ferrando share joint legal and physical custody of their minor child. After their custody decree was entered, they disagreed about who should watch the child after school on the days when the child is with Dimonaco. Dimonaco works during some of that time, so the question was what happens to the child until he gets off work. Ferrando asked the court for permission to provide after-school care herself — including help with homework — until Dimonaco finished work on his parenting days. She argued it was better for the child to be with a parent than in an after-school program run by the child's school, which is what Dimonaco had proposed and had already enrolled the child in. Dimonaco countered that the program gave the child educational services and chances to socialize, and he argued that having Ferrando provide care on his days would confuse the child, undermine the child's sense of belonging in his home, and force extra child exchanges between two parents who were in significant conflict. The district court sided with Ferrando and ordered that she provide the after-school care on Dimonaco's days. Dimonaco then asked the court to reconsider, requesting an evidentiary hearing — a proceeding where each side presents actual testimony and admitted evidence rather than just written arguments. He pointed out that the court had ruled without taking any evidence and had not made proper findings about what was in the child's best interest. The court denied the hearing request but added findings favoring Ferrando, saying Dimonaco had not shown "adequate cause" for a hearing. The Court of Appeals disagreed with how the district court handled the matter. It held that Ferrando herself had actually shown enough reason ("adequate cause") to justify an evidentiary hearing, because the parties genuinely disputed facts — such as whether the school's program provided beneficial educational services, whether the child needed those services, and how much conflict the additional exchanges would create. The court explained that resolving these questions required an evaluation that could not be done on paper alone. The appellate court also found that the district court had relied on materials that do not legally count as evidence: exhibits attached to motions that were never formally admitted, and the arguments of the attorneys. Because a decision about a child's best interest must rest on substantial evidence, and because the sworn statements in the case only vaguely addressed the key issues, the court concluded the district court did not have enough evidence to make its decision. The Court of Appeals therefore reversed the amended order and sent the case back so the district court can hold an evidentiary hearing on the after-school care issue.