Can Victims Sue for Domestic Violence Abuse in Nevada?

What You Need to Know

• Yes. A civil lawsuit is separate from the criminal case. You do not need a conviction, and you do not need the district attorney’s permission. A criminal case must be proven “beyond a reasonable doubt”; a civil case only has to be proven by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not.
• Nevada gives survivors a specific civil claim. Under NRS 41.134, a person injured by an act that qualifies as domestic violence can sue for their actual damages, and a prevailing plaintiff is awarded costs and reasonable attorney’s fees. Ordinary claims like assault, battery, and emotional distress are also available.
• Winning and collecting are different problems. A judgment against someone with no reachable assets and no applicable coverage can be hard to enforce, so it is worth asking early who can actually pay. Where a business’s security failure helped the harm happen, that business may face a separate claim for its own negligence, and its liability coverage can make it a more realistic source of recovery. That is a second claim to investigate, not a replacement for the claim against the person who hurt you.
• A business whose carelessness allowed a foreseeable attack can be liable for its own negligence, and the rule depends on the kind of property. For a hotel, motel or similar lodging business, a specific statute supplies the test (NRS 651.015; Humphries v. New York-New York Hotel & Casino, 133 Nev. 607, 403 P.3d 358 (2017)). For other property, such as an apartment complex or a store, the owner owes people who come onto the property reasonable care under the circumstances (Foster v. Costco Wholesale Corp., 128 Nev. 773, 291 P.3d 150 (2012)), and whether a third party’s attack was foreseeable is part of that question.
• Deadlines depend on the claim, and some claims have no deadline at all. Many civil claims here run on a two-year limitation period (NRS 11.190), but Nevada sets no time limit on a civil action arising from a sexual assault suffered at 18 or older (NRS 11.217) or from the sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of a child (NRS 11.215) against the alleged perpetrator or a person convicted of it. Do not assume your claim has expired. Separately, evidence a business controls, like security video, can be overwritten in weeks.

If you were hurt by someone who was supposed to be safe, or you are trying to help a family member who was, you may be wondering whether the law offers any real accountability beyond a criminal case that stalled, got dropped, or never happened. It does. Nevada gives survivors a civil path that runs on its own track, on its own rules, with its own remedies. This article explains who you can sue, what makes a claim worth pursuing rather than symbolic, and how the timeline works. It is general information about Nevada law, not advice about your specific situation.

First, a Word About Safety and Timing

Before the legal mechanics, one honest point: a lawsuit is rarely the first step, and for some readers it is not the most urgent one.

If you or someone you are helping is in immediate danger, call 911. For confidential support, safety planning, and help finding a local shelter, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24 hours a day at 1-800-799-7233 (or text START to 88788). Nevada also has local domestic violence shelters and victim advocates in Las Vegas, Henderson, and Pahrump who can help with protective orders and confidential relocation.

A few things worth knowing before a civil case begins:

• A civil filing is ordinarily a public court action, and the person you sue has to be notified. That reality can raise real safety and retaliation concerns. Depending on the court and the claim, measures such as redaction, sealing, protective orders, or Nevada’s Confidential Address Program may be available, and there are lawful ways to handle service and to coordinate a lawsuit around a protective order. Ask about safety before filing, with an advocate or attorney rather than alone and in a rush.
• Preserve what you can, but only when it is safe to do so. Photos of injuries, medical records, text messages, voicemails, incident reports, and the names of anyone who saw what happened all become evidence. Store copies using a device and an account the other person cannot monitor. If there is any chance your phone, accounts, or location are being watched, set the plan up with a trained advocate first. Creating a new account on a monitored device can itself send a notification and put you at risk.
• Be careful about contacting a business or an insurer on your own. If a hotel, apartment complex, or employer may share responsibility, an early unplanned call can put a recorded statement on the record before you have advice. It also starts the clock on evidence: video is often overwritten automatically on short retention schedules, so a prompt, specific preservation request matters more than an unplanned phone call.

None of this means waiting. It means the order of operations matters, and safety comes before strategy.

Yes, You Can Sue. The Civil Case Is Separate From the Criminal One

The most common misunderstanding is that a civil claim depends on the criminal system. It does not. They are two different tracks with two different purposes.

A criminal case is brought by the State to punish the abuser, and prosecutors must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. A civil case is brought by you, the injured person, to recover money for the harm you suffered, and it only has to be proven by a preponderance of the evidence: more likely than not. Because the civil standard is lower, a case that a prosecutor declined, or that ended in an acquittal or a plea to something minor, can still succeed as a civil lawsuit.

A conviction is not required. But if one exists, it does considerably more than help. Under NRS 41.133, when an offender “has been convicted of the crime which resulted in the injury to the victim, the judgment of conviction is conclusive evidence of all facts necessary to impose civil liability for the injury.” In practical terms, a qualifying conviction can take the question of what happened off the table in the civil case, leaving the fight over damages rather than over whether the abuse occurred. If there was a conviction, bring the judgment to your first consultation.

Nevada backs this up with a specific statute. Under NRS 41.134, a person who is injured as the proximate result of an act that constitutes domestic violence (as defined in NRS 33.018) may bring an action for their actual damages, and the statute directs the court to award a prevailing plaintiff costs and reasonable attorney’s fees. The acts NRS 33.018 lists, among them a battery, an assault, a sexual assault, a false imprisonment, and a knowing, purposeful or reckless course of conduct intended to harass, are domestic violence only when they are committed against or upon one of the persons the statute names: a spouse or former spouse, a person related by blood or marriage, someone the person has had or is having a dating relationship with, a person they share a child with, the minor child of any of those people, their own minor child, or a person appointed custodian or legal guardian of their minor child. The statute defines a dating relationship as frequent, intimate associations primarily characterized by the expectation of affectional or sexual involvement, and says the term does not include a casual relationship or an ordinary association between persons in a business or social context. Siblings and cousins are excluded unless they are in a custodial or guardianship relationship. If your situation does not fit one of those categories, the ordinary civil claims below are still available; it is the statutory fee-shifting claim that depends on the relationship.

Even where that specific statute does not fit, the ordinary civil claims still do. Domestic abuse typically supports one or more of these:

• Battery, for harmful or offensive physical contact.
• Assault, for putting you in reasonable fear of imminent harmful contact.
• False imprisonment, for confining or restraining your movement against your will.
• Intentional infliction of emotional distress, for extreme and outrageous conduct that caused severe emotional harm.

You do not have to choose the right label yourself. What matters at this stage is understanding that the door is open, on terms that do not depend on the criminal case.

The Real Question Isn’t “Can I Win?” It’s “Who Actually Pays?”

Here is where many survivors get honest, and where an experienced lawyer earns their keep. Winning a judgment and collecting on it are two very different things. A piece of paper that says an abuser owes you money is worth only what you can actually recover. So the sharpest question is not whether you have a valid claim. It is who has the ability to pay it.

Suing the Abuser Directly

Suing the abuser is the intuitive move, and sometimes it is the right one, especially where the person has real assets, income, or property that a judgment can reach. But two problems come up often enough that they deserve a straight answer.

First, collectability has to be investigated rather than assumed in either direction. Some defendants have little nonexempt income or property to collect against, which can leave a valid judgment hard to enforce. Others own a home, run a business, or earn a garnishable wage. “Judgment-proof” is a conclusion you reach after looking at what someone actually owns, not a synonym for an abuser.

Second, and less obvious, is insurance. People sometimes assume a homeowner’s or renter’s policy will cover the harm. Often it does not. Liability policies commonly contain an intentional-act exclusion, which bars coverage for injuries the insured expected or intended to cause, and some add separate abuse or criminal-act exclusions. Whether a given policy responds depends on its actual wording, who is insured under it, and how the claim is pleaded, so this is a question to answer from the policy rather than in the abstract. What is fair to say is that an abuser’s own liability coverage frequently is not a reliable source of payment for a deliberate attack.

When a Business’s Negligence Helped the Harm Happen

This is a path many survivors do not know exists. It is a second claim, not a replacement for the claim against the person who hurt you, and it only exists where the facts support it.

If the abuse happened at a place that a business controlled, and that business’s own carelessness made it possible, the business can be liable for its own negligence even though it did not commit the assault. Think of an apartment complex that ignored repeated reports about a dangerous ex, a broken security gate, or a lock that was never fixed. Think of a hotel that handed out a room number or a key to someone who should never have had it. Think of an employer that was warned about a threat and did nothing.

Insurance is why this path is worth investigating. A business’s negligence is a failure to act reasonably rather than an intent to harm, so the intentional-act exclusion that often defeats an abuser’s own policy does not apply to it in the same way. That said, a viable negligence theory does not guarantee coverage or payment: commercial policies carry their own exclusions, including assault-and-battery and abuse or molestation endorsements that are common in exactly this setting, and coverage still turns on the policy, the insured status and the allegations. The honest summary is that a negligent third party is often the more realistic source of recovery, and that whether its insurer pays is a question the policy answers, not this page.

To be clear about the boundary: the fact that an assault happened on someone’s property does not, by itself, make that property owner liable. The claim has to rest on a real, controllable failure by the business. That is a negligent security question, and it turns on foreseeability.

Was There a Security Failure? How to Recognize a Negligent Security Claim

Which rule applies to a third party’s wrongful act on the premises depends on the kind of property. For a hotel, inn, motel, motor court, boardinghouse or lodging house, NRS 651.015 supplies a specific test for a death or injury caused by another person who is not an employee under the control or supervision of the owner or keeper. It has two parts, and they are not the same test. Under subsection 1, the owner or keeper is not civilly liable unless the wrongful act that caused the death or injury was foreseeable and there is a preponderance of evidence that the owner or keeper did not exercise due care for the safety of the patron or other person on the premises. Under subsection 2, the owner or keeper is civilly liable if the wrongful act was foreseeable and the owner or keeper failed to take reasonable precautions against the foreseeable wrongful act. The statute has the court decide as a matter of law whether the wrongful act was foreseeable and whether the owner or keeper had a duty to take reasonable precautions against it. That statute is written for lodging businesses; it does not reach an apartment complex or property owners generally. For other property, the owner owes people who come onto the land a duty of reasonable care under the circumstances (Foster v. Costco Wholesale Corp., 128 Nev. 773, 291 P.3d 150 (2012)), and whether a third party’s wrongful act was foreseeable is part of deciding whether the owner acted reasonably.

Inside the lodging statute, foreseeability has a defined meaning. For the purposes of that section, a wrongful act is not foreseeable unless the owner or keeper failed to exercise due care for the safety of the patron or other person on the premises, or prior incidents of similar wrongful acts occurred on the premises and the owner or keeper had notice or knowledge of those incidents. That definition is written for that statute and does not supply the test for other property. Reading the lodging statute, the Nevada Supreme Court rejected a narrower view in Humphries v. New York-New York Hotel & Casino, 133 Nev. 607, 403 P.3d 358 (2017): foreseeability based on a failure to use due care does not depend on notice that one specific act would occur, and foreseeability based on prior similar acts calls for a case-by-case analysis of those acts, including the level of violence, the location of the attack, and the security concerns involved. The court reversed a summary judgment for the casino so the claim could go forward; it did not itself decide that the attack was foreseeable.

This is a corner of Nevada premises liability law, and the doctrine is what turns an ordinary set of facts into a claim. It is worth asking whether any of the following describe what happened:

• Prior complaints or incidents. Had the property seen similar violence, threats, or trouble before, and did management know?
• A specific warning that was ignored. Did anyone tell staff, security, or management about a threat, a protective order, or a dangerous person, only to have nothing change?
• A broken or missing safeguard. Were gates, locks, cameras, lighting, or key controls broken, absent, or not enforced?
• A disclosure that should not have happened. Did a hotel or complex reveal a room number, a unit, or a location to someone who should not have had it?
• Records that prove the timeline. Key card logs, security video, incident reports, staffing schedules, and maintenance records can show what the business knew and when.

If several of these fit, there may be a negligent security case worth investigating. The mechanics of proving one, and the details for specific settings, live in separate guides on how negligent security claims are proven, on suing a Las Vegas apartment complex, on hotel and parking-garage assault liability, and on what to do after an injury involving hotel or casino security. The takeaway here is simpler: the place where the harm happened may be part of the case, and that is often the part that pays.

What a Civil Case Can Recover

A civil claim is about compensation for what the harm actually cost you. Depending on the facts, recoverable damages can include:

• Medical and mental-health expenses, past and future, including therapy and counseling.
• Lost income and lost earning capacity if the abuse kept you from working.
• Pain, suffering, and emotional distress, which in these cases is frequently the largest and most real category of harm.
• Property damage, which NRS 41.134 specifically allows for domestic violence claims.
• Statutory costs and reasonable attorney’s fees when the domestic violence statute applies.

Emotional harm is not a lesser category of injury here. Nevada recognizes a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, which the state Supreme Court in Star v. Rabello, 97 Nev. 124, 625 P.2d 90 (1981), defined by three elements: extreme and outrageous conduct done with intent or reckless disregard, severe emotional distress, and a causal connection between the two. How that harm is valued is its own subject, covered in more depth in a companion guide on suing for emotional and psychological injuries in Nevada.

In cases involving especially cruel or malicious conduct, Nevada also allows punitive damages. Under NRS 42.005, a plaintiff who proves by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with oppression, fraud, or malice may recover damages meant to punish the wrongdoer, on top of compensation. Punitive damages are not automatic, and they carry a higher burden of proof, but domestic violence is the kind of intentional, deliberate conduct that can support them. The statute also caps them: unless one of its listed exceptions or another specific statute applies, a punitive award may not exceed three times the compensatory damages if compensatory damages are $100,000 or more, or $300,000 if compensatory damages are less than $100,000.

No honest article can tell you what your case is worth. Amounts depend on the specific facts, the evidence, the injuries, and who the collectable defendants are. Anyone who promises a number before reviewing your situation is guessing.

How Long You Have to File in Nevada

The deadline is not one number, and this is the single most important thing on this page to get right. Different claims against different defendants run on different clocks, and for some claims Nevada sets no deadline at all. If you have been told, or assumed, that your claim expired, confirm which rule actually applies before you accept that.

Two points about that table deserve emphasis.

A sexual assault by a partner can be domestic violence, and the no-deadline rule is a separate rule. NRS 33.018 lists a sexual assault among the acts that constitute domestic violence when it is committed against or upon one of the persons the statute covers, so where the relationship is one the statute reaches, a sexual assault by a partner can be domestic violence. Separately, and whatever the relationship, NRS 11.217 allows an action arising from a sexual assault suffered at 18 or older to be brought against the alleged perpetrator or a person convicted of the sexual assault at any time after it occurred, and NRS 11.215 does the same for sexual abuse or sexual exploitation suffered as a child. The no-deadline rule comes from those two statutes, not from the domestic violence definition. A domestic violence claim that does not arise from a sexual assault, such as a battery or an assault, stays on the ordinary NRS 11.190 clocks. Years passing does not, by itself, close the door on a sexual assault claim against those defendants.

The no-limit rule is specific about who it reaches. NRS 11.215 and 11.217 run against the alleged perpetrator or a person convicted of the act. A claim against a different defendant, such as a business whose security failure contributed to the harm, is a separate claim that generally carries its own two-year period. In a case with both, the clocks are not the same, and that is a reason to get the timeline mapped rather than assume the shortest one governs everything.

Accrual, tolling, and the specific claim you bring can all change the analysis, so this table is a starting point for a conversation, not a substitute for confirming your own dates.

There is a second, faster clock that has nothing to do with the statute of limitations. Evidence that a business controls does not wait two years. Security video is often overwritten within days or weeks. Incident reports get archived, staff turn over, and maintenance logs get purged on routine schedules. If a third party’s negligence is part of your case, the practical deadline to preserve that proof can be far shorter than the legal deadline to file. That gap is one of the most important reasons to talk to a lawyer sooner rather than later.

What You Can Do Now

If you take nothing else from this: the civil door is open on its own terms, an action arising from sexual assault or from childhood sexual abuse can be brought at any time against the alleged perpetrator or a person convicted of the offense, a business that could have prevented the harm may be a second defendant worth identifying, and the timeline for preserving proof can be measured in weeks.

A practical, honest set of next steps:

• Get safe and get support first. The legal case can wait a day; your safety cannot.
• Preserve evidence quietly. Medical records, photos, messages, and the names of witnesses, kept where the other person cannot reach them.
• Write down the “who knew what.” If a property, employer, or business may have ignored a warning or a hazard, note the dates, names, and what was reported.
• Talk to a lawyer before contacting any business or insurer. A short, free consultation can tell you whether a collectable claim exists and how to protect it, without tipping off a defendant.

Honest limits apply. Not every case has a solvent defendant, not every property failure rises to negligence, and a civil case can involve difficult discovery, including questions about your history. A good lawyer will tell you these things plainly rather than promise an outcome.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Sue if the Criminal Charges Were Dropped or He Was Never Convicted?

Yes. A civil lawsuit is independent of the criminal case and uses a lower standard of proof: a preponderance of the evidence rather than proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Charges that were dropped, declined, or reduced, and even an acquittal, do not bar a civil claim. A conviction is not required. If there was one, NRS 41.133 makes a qualifying judgment of conviction conclusive evidence of the facts necessary to impose civil liability, which can be a substantial advantage.

The Abuser Has No Money. Is Suing Pointless?

Not necessarily, and this is the most important question to ask early. A judgment against someone with no assets and no applicable insurance can be hard to collect. But if a business, such as a hotel, apartment complex, or employer, had a security failure that helped the harm happen, that business may be liable for its own negligence and may carry liability coverage, subject to its policy terms and exclusions. Identifying every potentially responsible defendant early is often what separates a symbolic case from a real recovery. Collectability against any defendant, including the abuser, is worth investigating rather than assuming.

Can I Sue a Hotel or Apartment Complex for an Attack That Happened There?

Sometimes, and the rule depends on the property. For a hotel, motel or similar lodging business, NRS 651.015 sets the test for a death or injury caused by another person who is not an employee under the control or supervision of the owner or keeper. It is two tests, not one: the owner or keeper is not liable unless the wrongful act was foreseeable and a preponderance of the evidence shows that it did not exercise due care for the safety of people on the premises, and it is liable if the wrongful act was foreseeable and it failed to take reasonable precautions against that foreseeable act. That statute also defines foreseeability for its own purposes, as a failure to exercise due care or prior incidents of similar wrongful acts on the premises that the owner or keeper had notice or knowledge of. It is written for lodging businesses and does not reach an apartment complex. There, the owner owes people who come onto the property reasonable care under the circumstances (Foster v. Costco Wholesale Corp., 128 Nev. 773, 291 P.3d 150 (2012)), and whether a third party’s attack was foreseeable is part of that question, without the lodging statute’s definition. The attack happening on the property is not enough by itself; there has to be a real, controllable failure by the business.

How Do I File Without the Abuser Learning Where I Live?

Court cases are public and the person you sue must be formally notified, which understandably raises safety concerns. There are lawful ways to handle service of process and to coordinate a civil case with a protective order so that your address and safety are protected. This is a decision to make with an attorney or a domestic violence advocate, not on your own.

Does Homeowner’s or Renter’s Insurance Cover the Abuse?

Often not for the abuser’s own conduct. Home and renter liability policies commonly contain an intentional-act exclusion barring coverage for harm the insured expected or intended, and some add separate abuse or criminal-act exclusions. Whether a particular policy responds depends on its wording, who is insured, and how the claim is pleaded, so it is answered from the policy rather than generically. Coverage for a business’s negligence is a different question, because negligence is a failure to act reasonably rather than an intent to harm, which is one reason the third-party path is often worth investigating.

How Long Do I Have to File a Domestic Violence Civil Claim in Nevada?

It depends on the claim. Assault, battery, false imprisonment, and a negligent security claim against a business generally run on a two-year period under NRS 11.190. But Nevada sets no deadline at all on a civil action arising from sexual assault suffered at 18 or older (NRS 11.217) or from sexual abuse or exploitation suffered as a child (NRS 11.215), brought against the alleged perpetrator or a person convicted of it. That no-limit rule comes from NRS 11.217 and NRS 11.215, not from the domestic violence definition in NRS 33.018, and it runs only against those defendants. A domestic violence claim that does not arise from a sexual assault runs on the ordinary NRS 11.190 periods. Confirm which rule fits your facts before concluding your claim has expired. Separately, evidence held by a business can be overwritten in weeks, so the practical deadline to preserve proof is often much sooner than the deadline to file.

If You Were Injured in Las Vegas

If you or a loved one was harmed in or near Las Vegas and you are weighing whether a civil claim makes sense, especially where a hotel, apartment complex, employer, or other business may share responsibility, it is worth a conversation. With over 40 years of personal injury experience and more than $500 million recovered in verdicts and settlements, Jack Bernstein understands how Nevada allocates responsibility across an abuser and the businesses whose negligence enables harm, and how to identify the defendant that can actually pay. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict future cases. Jack Bernstein Injury Lawyers offers a free consultation to evaluate whether you have a claim, who the collectable defendants might be, and which filing deadlines actually apply to your facts.

If you have been told your claim is too old, that is worth checking before you accept it. Nevada places no time limit on a civil action arising from sexual assault or from childhood sexual abuse against the alleged perpetrator or a person convicted of it. Other claims can run on much shorter clocks, and evidence a business controls, like security footage, can be overwritten within days, so it is worth reaching out sooner rather than later. Call (702) 633-3333.