LEGAL DESERT
Nevada’s sparse legal resources and vast geographical area present serious barriers to its isolated rural communities, further marginalizing the state's non-offending parents who are impacted by both domestic violence and the child welfare system's implicating response.
NEVADA
NV ranks as having the
LOWEST
10
TH
rate of attorneys per capita in the nation
There is 1 legal aid attorney per 4,800
low-income Nevadans
There is less than 1 attorney for every 1,000 residents in 11 of 17 Nevada counties
Nevada averages 2.4 attorneys for every 1,000 residents
GEOGRAPHICAL BARRIERS
NEVADA COUNTY
​
Clark County
Washoe County
Lyon County
Carson City*
Nye County
Elko County
Douglas County
Churchill County
Humboldt County
White Pine County
Pershing County
Lander County
Mineral County
Lincoln County
Storey County
Eureka County
Esmeralda County
*independent city
5,524
1,296
24
235
31
55
82
15
18
12
5
5
3
4
3
1
1
# OF ATTORNEYS PER
66.5%
of Nevada attorneys are concentrated in just
two counties and the consolidated state capital, which together account for only 13% of the state's land area.
In these three jurisdictions, the vast
majority of attorneys practice in the small, densely populated urban pockets of
Las Vegas, Reno/Sparks, and Carson City,
leaving most areas in the state underserved.
Only three attorneys in the state of Nevada are board-certified in child welfare law. All three of these attorneys are contracted with the Children’s Attorneys Project, and work closely with the Department of Child and Family Services to represent the legal interest of children in abuse/neglect cases against the parent. They do not represent parents accused of failure to protect from abuse inflicted on them.
Trained to contest charges in adversarial trials through rules of evidence and constitutional defenses. 432B matters are decided by perceived parental progress, service engagement, and subjective evaluations instead of factual guilt or innocence.
General practitioners who often juggle heavy volumes of mixed caseloads with a schedule that does not accommodate motions, discovery, case-plan challenges, or out-of-court investigations essential to child welfare proceedings
Accustomed to divorce, custody, and support disputes resolved through private-party negotiation or judicial balancing. 432B cases tare driven by DCFS safety findings, statutory risk assessments, compliance records, and imposed case-plan requirements rather than parental negotiation.
FAMILY ATTORNEY
CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY
CONTRACT/PANEL ATTORNEY
Parents facing child welfare proceedings in NV are typically represented by defense attorneys, family law firms, or "generalists" who do not specialize in this type of case and lack expertise in the complexities of dependency court litigation.
Niche Practice Area
representing mothers
representing fathers
54%
62%
of these attorneys, only
and
provided services beyond simply attending hearings or settlement conferences and briefly meeting with their clients beforehand.​
In the remainder of cases, representation did not perform meaningful advocacy functions such as:
Taking a clear position on the record
Consulting with the child's attorney
Arguing for services, visitation, or placement
Conducting independent investigations
Making objections
Challenging agency recommendations
Filing motions
Cross-examining witnesses
Meeting with clients
outside of court
Debriefing clients after hearings
The National Association of Counsel for Children reports that dependency cases “require specialized legal skills, training, and resources."
In 2020, Nevada’s Court Improvement Program conducted a study on the quality of legal representation in 432B dependency cases and found that in nearly half of hearings, parents’ attorneys performed no active advocacy.
A 2019 empirical study comparing more than 28,000 child-welfare cases
found that children whose parents were represented by
interdisciplinary defender offices
(lawyer + social worker + parent-advocate team)
​
spent
less time
in foster care
4
MONTHS
43%
were
to reunify within the first year
MORE LIKELY
compared to those whose parents were represented by
standard public defenders or solo practitioners.
When standard legal representation
in child welfare proceedings defaults
to guiding parents through the process of expected cooperation rather than standing up for their rights
and the integrity
of their families, victims of domestic violence
are left further disenfranchised by a justice system that can already feel stacked against them.