A Carson City criminal defense attorney represents people facing misdemeanor and felony charges in Nevada’s capital. Whether you end up facing jail, probation, or one of Carson City’s specialty court programs depends on the charge, your record, and how early someone starts working on it. Richard P. Davies, Esq. has practiced criminal law across Northern Nevada for more than 20 years, in cases from traffic charges through capital murder.
Justice, Municipal or District: Which Carson City Court Gets Your Case?
Carson City has three criminal courts, and all of them sit at 885 East Musser Street on two different floors.
The Carson City Justice Court and Municipal Court occupy the second floor of the courthouse. The First Judicial District Court is on the third. Each floor has its own clerk’s office.
Which one you land in follows the level of the charge. Municipal Court handles violations of Carson City ordinances. Justice Court takes misdemeanors and tries them through to verdict. The First Judicial District Court is where felonies and gross misdemeanors are tried.
The unusual part is who presides. Carson City has two District Court judges and two Justices of the Peace who also serve as Municipal Court judges, which means the same two people run both of the lower courts. In Washoe County, where our Reno criminal defense work is based, the justice courts and municipal courts have separate judges, so a misdemeanor and an ordinance violation can put you in front of two different people.
All three also run a consolidated administration, described by the courts themselves as a way to share staff resources and improve efficiency. Fines and fees are handled at a single office on the second floor, whichever court imposed them.
What Happens in the First 48 Hours After an Arrest?
You get a bail hearing, and it is likely to be held over video. Carson City’s courts publish a standing Zoom link for 48-hour bail hearings, so counsel can appear without anyone travelling to the courthouse.
Release conditions get set at that hearing, and the terms imposed there shape the months after it. Two days is not long to find someone and brief them, and the hearing goes ahead either way.
To talk through where your case stands and what the first hearing is likely to involve, call Richard P. Davies, Esq. at (775) 360-6894 for a free consultation.
Can a Case Be Resolved Through a Treatment Court Program?
Sometimes. Carson City runs four separate specialty court programs, each built around supervised treatment rather than a jail sentence. What each one requires of a participant, and at what stage of a case it becomes available, differs between them.
The Mental Health Court sits weekly in the Justice and Municipal Court and carries an average of 30 participants. It is paid for through specialty court funds from the Nevada Supreme Court along with legislative funding, and participants are supervised by a multi-disciplinary team that treats diagnosed mental illness and substance abuse together.
The Misdemeanor Treatment Court was established in July 2015 and averages around 50 participants, the majority of them between 18 and 25 years old. A team made up of the judge, the District Attorney, the Public Defender, the Department of Alternative Sentencing, the Sheriff’s Office and the Community Counseling Center meets weekly to review each participant’s progress, and participants attend court every week.
The Western Regional Adult Drug Court sits every other Monday in District Court and runs around 65 participants, which makes it a route worth asking about on a drug charge.
The Serious DUI Offender Program is mandated by Chapter 484 of the Nevada Revised Statutes and works on a modified drug court model, combining monitoring, supervision and treatment for repeat impaired driving cases. How Nevada treats the underlying charge is set out on our DUI defense page.
Eligibility for any of these depends on the charge, the record, and the court’s assessment, and no outcome can be promised in advance. They have to be raised while the case is still open to being shaped.
What Are the Alternatives to Jail in Carson City?
They run through a department that sits in the same building as the courts. Carson City’s Department of Alternative Sentencing works out of Suite 2080, on the same second floor as the Justice and Municipal Court.
The department handles electronic monitoring, random drug and alcohol testing, release from custody, pre-sentence supervision, and misdemeanor probation in both formal and informal forms. It also supervises participants in three of the four specialty courts, which means the department enforcing your conditions is the same one reporting on your progress to the judge.
Any of that is easier to argue for when someone raises it before sentencing rather than after.
What Happens When a Felony Is Bound Over to District Court?
It moves upstairs. A felony or gross misdemeanor begins in Justice Court, where a preliminary hearing determines whether there is enough evidence to proceed. If the judge finds there is, the case is bound over to the First Judicial District Court.
The district court covers more than Carson City. The same judges are responsible for District Court cases in Storey County, which includes Virginia City, and they also supervise the Juvenile Court and the Juvenile Services Department.
Two judges carry all of that. Washoe County’s Second Judicial District runs fifteen, nine of them on civil and criminal matters, so timelines quoted for a Nevada felony elsewhere in the state may not hold here.
What Are the Carson City Court Hours?
The two floors keep different hours, which is worth checking before you make the trip. The First Judicial District Court is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Justice and Municipal Court is open Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a closure between 11 a.m. and noon.
Both close on the state holidays listed in NRS 236.015, which include two that are specific to Nevada: Nevada Day on the last Friday in October, and Family Day on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Talk With Richard P. Davies Before the Bail Hearing
Nobody plans for the call that starts a criminal case, and it is not a call people make twice.
As a Carson City criminal defense attorney, Richard P. Davies, Esq. can review what happened, explain which of the three courts your case belongs in, and tell you whether any of the specialty court programs are worth pursuing. Call (775) 360-6894 for a free consultation.