What are legal notices and publications?
Legal publication notices are court documents that contain important information about a case and are intended to keep the public informed of all court proceedings and to preserve the integrity of all actions in the legal system.
By publishing legal notices in a local newspaper, like Las Vegas Sun, an interest is proclaimed publicly. Legal publication notices allow for the court to formally announce and confirm all critical information about a case and to keep citizens informed in the following cases:
A legal publication notice typically contains details about a pending action , such as the name of the person(s) who are involved in the action, the parties involved, and the type of the action being taken (i.e. divorce, bankruptcy, etc.) Generally, the information contained in these notices can be rather vague, however it does provide the public notice of the issues at hand.
The purpose of legal publications in Clark County
Legal publications have been an important part of law in Clark County since 1924. Where the law requires that certain notices be made to the public, the law references the Clark County Legal Journal or the two weekly newspapers in the county. The costs for publishing legal notices are generally lower when you go through a legal publication, and are paid out of the settlement funds. In Clark County we have The Las Vegas Review-Journal and (in Pahrump) the Pahrump Valley Times. The Clark County Legal Journal and The Las Vegas Review-Journal are comparable; where one does not meet the requirements, the other will. It is unlikely that a journal would publish a notice while the RJ refused or vice versa. The two papers do not compete on price for legal notices, but do offer a comparison on their websites.
Different types of legal notices in Clark County
In Clark County, there are several different purposes legal notices may be published in the newspaper. This section describes the legal notice publication requirements for the following types of notice:
Clark County Repossession Notices
Several years ago, Clark County legislators eliminated licensed repossession agents from the list of persons who can serve eviction notices. In their absence, a landlord must serve a notice to evict a tenant through the Clark County Sheriff’s Office. The landlord first off the name of the tenant furnishing a valid address, then the sheriff gives the tenant 10 days’ notice that his or her lease will be over. If the tenant doesn’t move out within 10 days, the sheriff will physically remove the tenant.
Clark County Probate Notices
Another type of legal notice is for probate proceedings. Pursuant to the Nevada Revised Statutes, a court proceeding to determine the distribution of a decedent’s estate or the appointment of an executor over a will must give notice by publication in the newspaper. The law requires service of this notice and receipt of notice to occur in one or more issues of a newspaper published at least once a week for three consecutive weeks. The order in which the newspaper appears in the publication matters as follows:
(a) The first newspaper published must contain the Notice of Hearing not less than 15 days before the second newspaper is to be published.
(b) The second newspaper published must contain the Notice of Hearing not less than 10 days before the third newspaper is to be published.
(c) The third publication must be made with not less than 5 days between each publication.
Clark County Public Hearing Notices
Notices of hearings, budget and Zoning information must also be published in the Clark County for five (5) days prior to the hearing (or budget consideration).
How to read legal notices published in Clark County
The official notices required under state law are published in the local print media and are frequently available online. In Clark County, the following publications run legal notices or have the ability to do so: Clark County Legal News To stay current on the notices for your properties or to keep your eye on what is happening with local government, go to the Legal News page on the Clark County Website to gain access to information on pending or final foreclosures as well as the judges and lawyers of the newly created Clark County Foreclosure Mediation program. www.clarkcountycourts.us The Las Vegas Review Journal The Las Vegas Review Journal (LVRJ) publishes legal notices statewide and it is frequently possible to access the notices online for free . If not, there is a fee to gain access to the online information. The LVRJ provides a CD version of the newspapers for $26.00 per month, and will ship out each publication of legal notices for $150.00 per month. Las Vegas Sun The Las Vegas Sun and its sister website are free resources for viewing public notices including foreclosures in Clark County. As of April 1, 2010 the Sun, not the Review Journal, took over the publication of legal notices for the City of Las Vegas (city ordinances must be published for three days). Many of the notices for the City of Henderson are published within the Review Journal but the Sun was selected to be the publisher for Las Vegas.
Requirements for publication of legal notices in the courts
The publication must be made in a legal newspaper, which is a qualified newspaper, as defined in NRS 238.080. Furthermore, pursuant to NRS 238.090, the publisher of the newspaper must certify that the advertisement or notice published complies with all the requirements of law and specify the cost therefor.
Additional particulars related to publication are provided in NRS 20.030(4), including the following:
Notices in cases of attachment or garnishment shall be published once a week for four successive weeks, unless otherwise specially provided by law. All other notices required by law to be published in any newspaper shall be published once a week for three successive weeks unless otherwise specially provided by law. The first publication shall be at least 10 days before the return date or the time otherwise provided by law for the return of service of such notice.
Legal notices and their effects on local municipalities
The impact of legal notices reach beyond the individual parties involved in the litigation process, impacting the local community at large. For instance, public notice publication of foreclosure proceeding and an eviction do impact the property rights of interested parties, but they also impact the community at large.
Notices publishing the condemnation of properties for adverse possession may serve to inform property owners of the potential for their property to be affected by the actions of third parties.
Public notice publishing a mechanic’s lien affects all individuals who have an interest in the property subject to the action to foreclose the lien. A notice of foreclosure to a lender informs them that their security interest is threatened.
Perhaps most importantly, the effective publishing of notices in foreclosure proceedings to the general public creates a uniformity between the adages of "every man’s home is his castle" and "know your public official for he is your servant." Effective publication of notices allows the community at large to become aware of any actions related to properties in which they may have an interest, financial or otherwise. When a family fails to make its real estate property available for public sale in a foreclosure action, the home owner has declared through their actions that they understand the home is not a castle, but merely a financial asset to be leveraged as they see fit .
Whether this knowledge leads developers to approach the lenders and home owners for the development of the property for whatever purpose may be in vogue at the moment, the only result of the foreclosure notices will be that the home owners must maintain the conditions of the property in order to protect their financial interest. If the same notice is published and the property is placed in the name of a bank or corporate entity that needs to protect its financial interests in the property, the integrity of the property is thereby protected.
The value of the publication system of legal notices is greatly elevated when it is extended beyond the categories noted above. Adverse possession is, perhaps, the best example of the value of public notice publication to the general public. A claim of adverse possession serves only to divest "color of title" from the party with the apparent ownership of the property. Notice of the adverse possession claim allows the supposed owners to file a complaint in the appropriate court to contest the validity of the claim.
Without this cause of action, legislative or judicially created, the color of title holder may never be aware of the claim and the value of their supposed property may be diminished as a result of the adverse possession claim.
Proper application of the publication system can avoid these negative impacts on the community. In this way, the publication of legal notices goes beyond mere construction of an action. The notices have the double impact of reaching into the communities and informing the membership of events and actions that in some way affect all of them.