The Nevada federal courts system is comprised of two locations, the Bruce R. Thompson courthouse in Reno, Nevada, and the Lloyd D. Johnson courthouse in Las Vegas, Nevada. Both are considered federal district courts   for the District of Nevada. The Chief Judge for the entire state District sits in Las Vegas, and both courthouses have a combined total of 12 federal judges and 8 magistrates.

The two federal court locations handle a combination of civil and criminal federal cases, providing parties the first district federal adjudication level of issues under federal law. The Nevada District sits within the 9th District Court of Appeals, which is physically located in California. From there appeals generally go to the federal Supreme Court if accepted.

The Nevada District annually sees a working caseload of approximately 8,150 cases, which is slightly lower than previous years. The average federal Nevada criminal court case takes just under 12 years to resolve and the average civil case is just over 9 years. The political appointment makeup of the court is somewhat half Clinton-Obama appointees and half Reagan-Bush appointees. Interestingly, the District has begun to develop a reputation for proactive resolution of federal patent cases. Much of this is due to a recent adoption of local court rules, procedural requirements specific to the Nevada District courts that lawyers have to follow, which are designed to expedite related litigation. It’s a notable development considering that patent law is probably second in complexity to only copyright and taxation laws.

In a number of areas the Nevada Federal Courts Districts is very different from its western neighbor, even though both are under the same federal appellate district. For example, when it comes to liability for data loss, the Nevada Federal Courts Districts conservatively positioned on the side of business deciding that a data breach alone was not enough to support a class action decision against a company since the loss itself didn’t create any damage. A similar case probably would get a different reading on the California side. On crime, the Nevada courts are also famous for stiffer sentencing as well within reason. All Nevada federal courts are limited by federal sentencing rules to maintain consistency in penalties applied.