How to File for Child Custody in Nevada: Forms, Filing, and Service

To file for child custody in Nevada, you submit a Petition for Custody to the Family Court in the county where your child lives, pay the filing fee (about $259 in Clark County), and have the other parent formally served with the papers. From there, the case moves through financial disclosures, mandatory mediation in most counties, and either a stipulated parenting plan or a hearing where a judge decides based on the child’s best interests. Until a court issues an order, Nevada treats both parents as having equal joint legal and joint physical custody, so a formal petition is what turns your parental rights into something enforceable.¹

Confirm Nevada Can Hear Your Case

Nevada courts can only take a custody case if the state qualifies as your child’s “home state” under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act. That means the child has lived in Nevada with a parent for at least six consecutive months immediately before you file.² Short trips out of state, like vacations, still count toward that six months.³

For a baby younger than six months, Nevada is the home state if the child has lived here since birth with a parent.³ If your child moved to Nevada recently and hasn’t hit the six-month mark, the previous state may still hold jurisdiction, particularly if a parent remains there.

There is one narrow exception. When a child is physically in Nevada and faces abandonment, abuse, or mistreatment, a Nevada court can take temporary emergency jurisdiction even without home-state status.³

Unmarried Fathers: Establish Paternity First

If you are an unmarried father, filing a custody petition is a two-step process. Without established paternity, Nevada law lets a court award primary physical custody to the mother of a child born outside of marriage.⁴ You need legal fatherhood on the record before the court will treat you as a parent for custody purposes.

Paternity can be established by signing a voluntary acknowledgment at the hospital, filing a parentage action under NRS Chapter 126, or getting an order through child support enforcement.⁵ If paternity is contested, the court can order genetic testing. Once paternity is entered, custody, visitation, and support can be addressed in the same proceeding.

Forms You Need to Prepare

The core filing is the Petition for Custody, where you set out the arrangement you want and a proposed schedule for the child’s time with each parent. Before drafting it, know that Nevada divides custody into two independent categories:

Legal custody is who makes major decisions on education, healthcare, and religion. Joint legal custody is presumed to be in the child’s best interest when either parent has shown intent to build a meaningful relationship with the child.¹
Physical custody is where the child lives. Nevada also prefers joint physical custody when a parent has shown commitment to the child, though it doesn’t have to be a strict 50/50 split. A court may award one parent primary physical custody when joint custody would not serve the child, including where a parent cannot adequately care for the child at least 146 days per year or where there is clear and convincing evidence of domestic violence.¹⁴

Along with the petition, you file:

A Summons, the formal notice that a legal action has started.
A UCCJEA Declaration, sworn out with your first pleading. It lists the child’s current address, everywhere the child has lived in the past five years, and the names and addresses of every person the child lived with during that period. Errors here can give the other parent grounds to attack the court’s authority later, so double-check dates and addresses.⁶
A child support worksheet with current pay stubs, tax returns, or other proof of income, since support is usually decided alongside custody.

In many Nevada courts a Joint Preliminary Injunction takes effect automatically when the case is filed. It prevents either parent from taking the child out of state, changing insurance coverage, or disposing of shared property while the case is pending. The specific restrictions depend on your county’s local rules. Blank forms are available through the Nevada Self-Help Center and the Family Law Self-Help Center.

File With the Clerk and Pay the Fee

Submit your paperwork to the Clerk of the Court in the county where the child lives. Most Nevada courts accept electronic filing through e-FileNV; in-person filing at the clerk’s office is also available. In Clark County, the filing fee for a new custody complaint is $259.⁷ Other counties charge similar amounts with slight local variation.

If you can’t afford the fee, submit an Application to Proceed In Forma Pauperis under NRS 12.015. If it is approved, the court waives the filing fee and certain other costs. Once your documents are stamped and a case number is assigned, you move to service.

Serve the Other Parent

Nevada’s Rules of Civil Procedure require the Summons and Petition to be personally delivered to the other parent. You cannot do this yourself. Service must be handled by a sheriff, constable, or any non-party who is at least 18 years old.⁸ After delivery, the person who served the papers files an Affidavit of Service so the court has a record of proper notice. Professional process servers usually charge $55 to $150 depending on location and difficulty.

What Happens After Filing

Service starts the clock. The other parent has 21 calendar days to file an Answer or a counterclaim.⁹ If they ignore the papers, you can ask for a default judgment.¹⁰ A default isn’t a rubber stamp. The judge still evaluates whether the arrangement serves the child, but the absent parent loses the chance to argue for something different.

Financial Disclosures

Under Nevada Rule of Civil Procedure 16.2, both parties must file a Financial Disclosure Form within 45 days after the summons and complaint are served. In a custody action between unmarried parents with established paternity, each side files a cover sheet, personal income schedule, and business income or expense schedule. Failing to file can lead to sanctions. If your financial situation changes materially during the case, you have ten judicial days to update the form.

Mediation

Nevada requires mediation before trial in custody disputes. Counties with populations of 700,000 or more (Clark County) must operate a mandatory mediation program, and counties between 100,000 and 700,000 (Washoe County) have the same requirement. Smaller counties may establish their own programs.¹¹ The mediator works with both parents on a parenting plan covering the schedule, holidays, school breaks, and activities. Mediation is not used in every case. Courts can exempt cases involving substantiated child abuse allegations, severe psychological issues, or situations where the mediator finds the process would be futile.¹²

Parenting Class

Many Nevada courts also require both parents to attend a seminar for separating parents, commonly called the COPE class. Topics include co-parenting, shielding children from parental conflict, and managing transitions between households. Fees typically run $25 to $95, and you file proof of completion before the court issues a final custody order.

How a Judge Decides if You Don’t Settle

If mediation doesn’t produce an agreement, a judge decides using the best interest factors in NRS 125C.0035. Every piece of evidence you bring should tie back to at least one of them:

The child’s wishes, if the child is old enough and mature enough to express a preference.
Which parent is more likely to support the child’s continuing relationship with the other parent.
The level of conflict between the parents and their ability to cooperate on the child’s needs.
The mental and physical health of each parent.
The child’s physical, developmental, and emotional needs.
The nature and quality of each parent’s relationship with the child.
Whether the child can maintain sibling relationships.
Any history of parental abuse or neglect of the child or the child’s siblings.
Whether either parent or anyone seeking custody has committed domestic violence against the child, a parent, or anyone living with the child.
Whether either parent has abducted or attempted to abduct the child or any other child.

The domestic violence factor carries special weight. If a court finds by clear and convincing evidence that a parent committed domestic violence, there is a rebuttable presumption that joint physical custody is not in the child’s best interest, and that parent has to present evidence to overcome it before a shared arrangement is on the table.⁴

Emergency Situations

Standard custody cases take months. If your child faces immediate danger from abuse, neglect, or abandonment, the ordinary timeline doesn’t fit. Two paths are available. Where no case exists yet and the child is physically in Nevada, the court can exercise temporary emergency jurisdiction even without home-state status.³ Where a custody order already exists and is being violated, you can file an emergency motion to enforce it and request an expedited hearing. A “pickup order” granting temporary sole custody is available in true emergencies, though courts grant them sparingly. To get an earlier hearing date, you submit a request for an Order Shortening Time, and if it’s approved, you personally serve the other parent with notice of the new date.

1
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 125C – Custody and Visitation
2
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 125A.305 – Initial Child Custody Jurisdiction
3
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 125A – Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act
4
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 125C.003 – Best Interests of Child, Primary Physical Custody, Presumptions, Child Born Out of Wedlock
5
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 126 – Parentage
6
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 125A.385 – Information to Be Submitted to Court
7
Eighth Judicial District Court. Eighth Judicial District Court Fees
8
Nevada Supreme Court. ADKT 522 Petition Exhibit A – Section: Rule 4. Summons
9
Nevada Supreme Court. ADKT 522 Petition Exhibit A – Section: Rule 12. Defenses and Objections
10
State of Nevada Self-Help Center. How to Respond to a Custody Complaint
11
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 3 – District Courts
12
Nevada Legislature. Rules of Practice for the Second Judicial District Court – Section: Rule 53. Mediation