Nevada's eviction courts put tenants on the clock, and reform bills keep getting vetoed

Nevada's eviction system can move so quickly that one mother of three, who was behind on $3,287 in rent, had her case decided in about two minutes.

For advocates pushing changes, that speed has turned eviction court into a stark display of deepening housing affordability problems.

Here's what to know

Tenant organizations, attorneys, and elected officials spotlighted Nevada's eviction process, which requires renters to go to court first if they want to prevent an eviction, according to the Nevada Current.

Jonathan Norman, advocacy, outreach and policy director for the Nevada Coalition of Legal Service Providers, said the burden placed on tenants reverses the way civil cases are usually handled.

"The idea that a tenant files the first pleading with a court is just contrary to every other civil process in the United States, not just evictions," Norman told the publication.

Nevada recorded 78,000 eviction filings in fiscal year 2025, including roughly 54,000 in Las Vegas Justice Court alone, according to a Nevada Supreme Court report. In fiscal year 2024, the figure was nearly 85,000 filings, per the Current.

Nevada's summary eviction rules have survived several reform attempts. In 2021, lawmakers sought a major rewrite but ended up converting the effort into a study bill. 

Bills passed in both 2023 and 2025, only to be vetoed by Gov. Joe Lombardo, who wrote in a 2023 veto message that the proposals would cause "additional and unnecessary delays" and raise costs for property owners, the outlet reported.

More background

Ben Iness, coalition coordinator with the Nevada Housing Justice Alliance, told the Current that the state "lacks protections against rent hikes and rent gouging."

Advocates pointed to one hearing in which a tenant told hearing master Daniel Westmeyer that she was trying to recover after homelessness but fell behind when her daughter got sick and she missed work.

"I'm just starting to save money to be able to pay back," she said, per the publication. "I just need a little bit more time."

The eviction was granted, though the court stayed it for 10 days. To Norman, such hearings show "the carnage and the speed." He told the Current that tenants are often treated as though nonpayment reflects a personal failing instead of proof that "they live in a society that has priced them out and pays wages that don't allow them to live."

What's being done?

A lawsuit filed by attorneys at the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada argues that summary eviction cases in Las Vegas Justice Court should not be decided by a hearing master but an elected judge.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, who is running against Lombardo in the November election, said in an email to the Current that he supports reshaping Nevada's eviction process to the rest of the country's. His campaign also said he backs outlawing price-fixing on essentials such as rent and capping rent hikes for seniors.

Lombardo signed legislation in 2025 to send $21 million in eviction-diversion rental assistance to county governments along with another measure to add rental-price transparency in leases.

Lawmakers are also expected to try again for eviction reform and rent caps in the 2027 legislative session, the Current reported. 

"At the end of the day, justice shouldn't depend on what ZIP code you're in," Norman said.

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