Nevada family-law case summaries

Virginia and James were married in 2014, have three children, and divorced in 2015. At first Virginia had primary physical custody (meaning the children lived mostly with her), and James had limited parenting time. Over the following years, both parents filed many motions about custody. Virginia repeatedly raised allegations that James abused the children, but investigations by the Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) and, in one instance, the FBI found those allegations unsubstantiated and led to no charges. In July 2022, James asked the court for sole physical custody, arguing that Virginia was harming the children's relationship with him and coaching them to say he abused them. After a one-day hearing in June 2023 — which included the judge privately interviewing two of the children and testimony from the children's therapist and both parents — the district court awarded James what it called "primary physical custody." The court also suspended Virginia's parenting time for three months, then limited her to one supervised visit per month, and required her to undergo a psychological evaluation before any unsupervised time. The Court of Appeals agreed with Virginia on one point: even though the district court labeled its decision "primary physical custody," the practical effect was to give James **sole** physical custody, because Virginia was left with essentially no meaningful in-person time with the children for the foreseeable future. Under Nevada law, before a court can award sole physical custody, it must make specific written findings — separate from its analysis of the children's best interests — either that the other parent is unfit to have the children live with them, or explaining why primary physical custody is not in the children's best interest. The district court did not make those separate findings, so the Court of Appeals reversed that part of the order. On the other issues, the court sided against Virginia. It held she waived (gave up) several arguments by not raising them at the hearing below — including her objections to the judge considering the 30 exhibits attached to James's motion, and her relocation argument. The court found she had a fair hearing and did not show the judge was biased, so it declined to send the case to a different judge. Because Virginia said in her reply brief that she had already completed the psychological evaluation, the court did not address that issue. The case goes back to the district court to enter a new custody order following the guidelines the court set out in a prior case called *Roe v. Roe*.