What Happens at a Custody Hearing in Nevada, and How Long Custody Court Takes

What is a custody hearing in Nevada, and what is it not?

A custody hearing is any court date in a case where the custody of a child is at issue: a divorce with children, a custody complaint between unmarried parents, or a motion to modify an existing order. In Clark County these cases are heard in the Family Division of the Eighth Judicial District Court by a district court judge or, for some matters, a hearing master.

The word “hearing” covers very different events, and knowing which one you have been set for changes everything about how to prepare:

• Case management conference (CMC). An early, structured meeting on the record. The court, the lawyers and the parents go over the claims, the chance of settlement, disclosures and a discovery plan, and the judge enters interim orders and a scheduling order (EDCR 5.404). Parties must attend even if they have lawyers (EDCR 5.608).
• Motion hearing. A short argument on a written request, most often a motion for temporary custody, a temporary timeshare or temporary child support. Nevada courts can enter custody orders “during the pendency of the action” under NRS 125C.0045(1)(a).
• Return from mediation. A brief check-in after the parents attend the Family Mediation Center, where the judge adopts any agreement reached or sets the case for the next step.
• Evidentiary hearing or custody trial. The full contest: sworn testimony, exhibits, cross-examination, and the judge’s findings and decision. This is the only kind of hearing where final custody is normally decided.

In short: in a contested case the first custody hearing is rarely the custody trial. It sets the rules for the case and keeps the children’s routine stable while the case moves.

What happens at your first custody hearing?

For most Clark County parents the first hearing is either the case management conference or a hearing on a motion for temporary orders. Here is what typically happens, and what the court rules require.

1. The judge confirms who is present and what is in dispute. Custody, timeshare, child support, exclusive possession of the home and other requests are identified. If either parent is asking for money (child support, spousal support, fees), a General Financial Disclosure Form must already be on file (EDCR 5.507).
2. Interim orders. At a CMC the court enters “interim orders sufficient to keep the peace and allow the case to progress,” assigns burdens of proof on contested issues, discusses the litigation budget and enters a scheduling order (EDCR 5.404(b)). At a motion hearing the judge rules on the temporary custody or timeshare request, or takes it under advisement.
3. Referral to mediation. Every parent in a contested custody case must attend mediation, through the Family Mediation Center or a private mediator, before the judge finally decides custody (EDCR 5.306, NRS 3.475). The judge can waive mediation where there is child abuse or domestic violence, where a parent lives out of state, or for other good cause, and a parent can ask for that exemption at the CMC.
4. Order to complete the parenting seminar. The court can require both parents to complete the seminar for separating parents, called the COPE class in Clark County, and to file the certificate within 45 days of the order (EDCR 5.305). Not completing it will not delay the final hearing, but the court can take action to compel it.
5. Dates. You leave with a written order or a minute order setting the next event: a return from mediation, discovery deadlines, a calendar call or an evidentiary hearing.

Two rules catch parents off guard. First, when a motion is filed, the other side has 14 days after service to file a written opposition, and the motion carries a printed warning that if no response is filed the court may grant the request without a hearing (EDCR 5.502). Second, absent an order shortening time for good cause, a motion hearing cannot be set sooner than 35 days after filing (EDCR 5.502(b), 5.606). So “I filed a motion today, when is my hearing” usually means five weeks or more.

How long does custody court take in Nevada?

There is no statutory deadline for finishing a custody case, so the honest answer is a range built from the deadlines the rules do set. The table below follows a contested Clark County custody case from filing to decision.

Put together, a case where the parents agree at mediation can be over in a few months. A case that goes all the way to an evidentiary hearing commonly takes several months to more than a year. How quickly the parents resolve the disputed issues is one of the biggest variables, along with service, discovery, whether a custody evaluation or therapeutic assessment is ordered, mediation availability, and the assigned department’s calendar.

What makes custody court faster: agreeing on the undisputed points early, completing COPE and mediation promptly, exchanging financial disclosures on time, and a proposed timeshare that the judge can adopt. What makes it slower: unserved parties, missed deadlines, allegations that require an evidentiary hearing, out-of-state parents, and requests to continue hearings, which the court grants only by stipulation or motion (EDCR 5.607).

In short: a motion hearing is at least 35 days out unless time is shortened; the whole case takes months, and how fast the parents narrow the dispute is one of the biggest variables.

If your hearing notice is already in hand, send it to us and we will tell you which kind of hearing it is and what the judge can do at it.

What is the judge looking at in a custody hearing?

Whatever kind of hearing you are in, the judge is working from the same statute. Under NRS 125C.0035(1), “the sole consideration of the court is the best interest of the child.” Under subsection 2, preference must not be given to either parent for the sole reason that the parent is the mother or the father. And under subsection 4, the court “shall consider and set forth its specific findings” on the statutory best-interest factors, which run from the wishes of a child old enough to form an intelligent preference through the level of conflict between the parents, each parent’s ability to cooperate, the child’s relationship with each parent and siblings, the child’s physical, developmental and emotional needs, and any history of parental abuse, neglect, domestic violence or abduction.

The full list of the twelve factors, how the joint-custody preference in NRS 125C.0025 works, and what a parenting plan must contain are explained in our guide to how child custody works in Nevada. This page stays focused on the hearing itself.

Three points matter most on the day:

• Findings are mandatory. Because the judge must state specific findings on the factors, the evidence you present should map to those factors. Testimony that “the other parent is a bad person” without a factor behind it goes nowhere.
• Domestic violence changes the burden. A finding after an evidentiary hearing, by clear and convincing evidence, that a parent committed domestic violence creates a rebuttable presumption that custody with that parent is not in the child’s best interest (NRS 125C.0035(5)). Since 2025, NRS 125C.243 and 125C.245 also limit what a court may order when abuse is alleged, including who may give expert evidence and when reunification treatment can be ordered. Our page on domestic violence and child custody in Nevada covers those rules.
• Stability wins temporary rounds. At the first hearing the judge is protecting the child’s routine, not rewarding the more persuasive parent. Asking for a temporary schedule that looks like the child’s existing life is usually more effective than asking for everything at once.

How do I prepare for a custody hearing, and what should I bring?

What not to do: do not bring the child to court unless the judge has ordered it; do not text, email or post about the other parent in the days before the hearing, because those messages become exhibits; do not interrupt or answer for the other side; and do not talk to the judge’s staff about the merits of your case, which the court can treat as an attempt to gain an advantage (EDCR 5.211).

For a virtual hearing, test your camera and audio the day before, use a quiet room with a plain background, keep your documents open in a second window, and stay muted until the judge addresses you. Treat it as a courtroom, because it is one.

Is my custody hearing virtual or in person, and can it be private?

Since the June 2022 rewrite of the Family Division rules, the default in Clark County is remote. Under EDCR 5.609, “all hearings except for evidentiary hearings, trials, and proceedings to show cause why sanctions should not be imposed” are conducted by audiovisual or telephone equipment unless the court directs otherwise. A party can ask for an in-person hearing by stating the reasons in the motion, opposition or reply, and the court can reschedule any hearing in person on at least 7 days’ notice for good cause.

In-person hearings, evidentiary hearings and trials take place at the Family Court and Services Center, 601 N. Pecos Road, Las Vegas, NV 89101. The Family Mediation Center is on the same campus in Building B. Arrive early: security screening lines are part of the schedule.

Family court hearings are not automatically closed. Under EDCR 5.212, the court “shall, upon demand of either party, direct that the hearing or trial be private,” excluding everyone except court officers, the parties, their counsel and staff, and the witnesses, subject to the exceptions in that rule. Nevada also changed its family-court privacy rules in 2025 (SB 432); our guide to whether Nevada family court hearings are public explains what SB 432 did and how to protect your records.

What happens after the custody hearing?

After the judge announces a ruling, a written order is prepared, countersigned or objected to as to form, signed by the judge and filed with the clerk (EDCR 5.515, 5.706, 5.708). The filed written order is the document to rely on for the precise terms of the ruling; case-management, scheduling and certain emergency directives can operate differently. Ask for the filed order rather than working from memory of what was said in court.

Temporary custody orders last until the court changes them. NRS 125C.0045(1)(b) lets the court modify or vacate its order “at any time,” and a temporary order is not a preview of the final decision, although the routine it creates tends to become the status quo the judge later weighs. If the parents reach agreement after the hearing, a stipulation placed on the record or reduced to a signed writing is binding immediately and becomes an order once signed and filed; a court-adopted custody stipulation is treated as including a finding that it is in the child’s best interest (EDCR 5.601).

If the hearing ended with a referral, the next steps are mediation, the COPE class, discovery and, if the case does not settle, calendar call and an evidentiary hearing. If the hearing was the evidentiary hearing, the court issues findings of fact and conclusions of law on the best-interest factors and enters the custody order and parenting plan. After a final order, a parent who wants a change must show a substantial change in circumstances affecting the child; our guide to custody relocation in Nevada covers the most common post-order dispute, a parent who wants to move.

When should I call a Las Vegas custody lawyer?

Before the first hearing, if you can. The interim orders entered at a case management conference or on a temporary-orders motion shape the routine the child lives with for the rest of the case, and the early case conference report locks in your proposed timeshare and the issues you have identified. A lawyer also handles the deadlines that quietly decide cases: the 14-day opposition window, the 21-day answer period, the 45-day COPE certificate and the exhibit exchange at calendar call.

Our Las Vegas child custody lawyers appear in the Family Division every week, in English and Spanish, and can tell you in one consultation which kind of hearing you have been set for, what the judge is likely to do with it, and what to bring. If you are a father worried about being treated differently, our fathers’ rights lawyers in Las Vegas handle exactly that question. If you are asking for sole custody, start with sole custody in Nevada.

Frequently asked questions about custody hearings in Nevada

What happens at the first custody hearing in Nevada?

The first hearing is usually a case management conference or a temporary-orders motion hearing. The judge identifies the disputes, enters interim orders to keep the child’s routine stable, sets a scheduling order, may order the COPE class and refers the parents to mediation. In a contested case, final custody is usually not decided at the first hearing.

How long does a custody hearing take?

The appearance itself is usually short. A case management conference or motion hearing is often measured in minutes because the judge has a full calendar, and most are held by video. An evidentiary hearing or custody trial is different: it runs hours to several days depending on the witnesses and exhibits, and it is held in person.

How long does custody court take from start to finish?

Several months at the fast end, when parents settle at mediation, to more than a year for a contested case that goes through discovery and an evidentiary hearing. The rules fix only the pieces: 21 days to answer, 14 days to oppose a motion, at least 35 days from filing to a motion hearing, 45 days to file the COPE certificate, and mediation before any final custody decision.

Does the judge decide custody at the first hearing?

Usually not. The judge may enter a temporary custody or timeshare order to govern the case while it is pending (NRS 125C.0045(1)(a)), and can adopt terms the parents agree to at the case management conference, but a contested custody dispute is decided after mediation and, if the parents still disagree, after an evidentiary hearing with specific findings on the best-interest factors.

Do I have to go to mediation before a custody hearing?

Before the judge finally decides custody, yes. EDCR 5.306 and NRS 3.475 require the parents in a contested custody case to attend mediation through the Family Mediation Center or a private mediator. The court can waive it for child abuse, domestic violence, an out-of-state parent or other good cause, and a parent can ask for the exemption at the case management conference or by early motion.

Can my child come to the custody hearing or talk to the judge?

Do not bring your child unless the court has ordered it. A child’s wishes are one best-interest factor when the child is old enough to form an intelligent preference, but how and whether the judge hears from the child is decided by the court, not by a parent bringing the child to the hearing.

What if the other parent does not show up to the custody hearing?

Represented and unrepresented parties are required to appear at case management conferences, returns from mediation and hearings on custody and support (EDCR 5.608). If a parent who was properly served does not appear or does not file a timely opposition, the court may grant the requested relief, and repeated non-attendance can lead to sanctions. Your own attendance is the safest assumption at every custody hearing.

Is a custody hearing open to the public?

Not if a party asks that it be closed. EDCR 5.212 requires the court, on demand of either party, to make the hearing or trial private, subject to the exceptions in that rule. Records and privacy under Nevada’s 2025 changes are covered on our family court privacy page.

How much does a custody hearing cost?

Court costs for a hearing are small next to the attorney time to prepare for it. Filing fees, the COPE class and Family Mediation Center fees are set on published schedules, and FMC fees are on a sliding scale with waivers for parents who meet income requirements (EDCR 5.306(c)). Our Las Vegas divorce cost guide explains how attorney fees are structured.

Can I appeal a custody decision?

A final custody order can be appealed to the Nevada appellate courts, and a party can also ask the district court to reconsider or rehear a motion under EDCR 5.516. Temporary orders are generally not appealable as final orders. Deadlines are short, so ask a lawyer immediately after an adverse ruling.