A Lake Tahoe criminal defense lawyer defends people arrested on the Nevada shore of the lake, at Incline Village and Crystal Bay, on charges ranging from a first DUI to a felony. The decisions made in the first few weeks can shape how the rest of the case goes, and a conviction can follow your record, your license, and your work long after the court is finished with you. Richard P. Davies, Esq. has defended clients across Northern Nevada for more than 20 years, in cases from traffic charges through capital murder.
Which court will handle your case?
Criminal cases from Incline Village and Crystal Bay begin at the Incline Village-Crystal Bay Township Justice Court, usually shortened to Incline Justice Court. It has handled this stretch of the Washoe County lakeshore since 1980 from a courthouse at 855 Alder Avenue, and its authority is confined to matters arising in and around the two communities.
Where it ends up depends on the level of the charge. Misdemeanors stay at Incline Justice Court from arraignment through trial, so the case can begin and finish at the lake. Gross misdemeanors and felonies also start there, but only through arraignment and the preliminary hearing. If the judge finds probable cause at that hearing, the case is forwarded to the Second Judicial District Court in Reno for the rest of the proceedings.
Either way the prosecutor is the same. Cases at Incline Justice Court are brought by the Washoe County District Attorney’s Office, which is the same office Richard P. Davies, Esq. appears against in Reno. If a case is bound over, it lands in the courts where our Reno criminal defense lawyer work is already based, so there is no reason to change attorneys partway through.
What if I was arrested at Lake Tahoe but live somewhere else?
Plan on travelling for your court dates. Nevada’s general rule is set out in NRS 178.388, which requires a defendant to be present at arraignment, at every stage of trial, and at sentencing. Incline Justice Court applies that directly, and its published policy is that scheduled proceedings must be attended in person unless the court grants permission otherwise.
Permission has to be asked for in advance. Anyone who wants to appear virtually must file a motion requesting remote appearance at least 72 hours before the hearing, and the court decides whether to approve it. In-custody hearings run separately by video on weekday mornings.
Failing to sign on in time with a working device may be treated as a failure to appear, which can result in a warrant. For someone driving up from Sacramento or flying into Reno, that leaves very little margin on a court date.
A Lake Tahoe criminal defense lawyer can file the remote appearance request, confirm what the court expects at each setting, and tell you which dates genuinely require you to be in the room. To talk through what your case will require, call Richard P. Davies, Esq. at (775) 360-6894 for a free consultation.
When is Incline Justice Court open?
The court is open to the public four days a week rather than five. Its hours run Monday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with an earlier 8 a.m. start on the first Thursday of each month. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are closed to the public except when someone has been called in for testing.
There is no Friday to absorb a delay, so a missed morning waits until the court sits again.
One detail catches people who arrive straight from the beach or the slopes. The court requires appropriate attire and prohibits tank tops, shorts, and cut-offs. Shirts and shoes are required.
Who makes arrests on the north shore?
Arrests here come from the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office and the Nevada Highway Patrol rather than a city police department. Neither Incline Village nor Crystal Bay has one, which is the practical difference from a case that begins in Reno or Sparks.
Incline Village and Crystal Bay together have a permanent population under ten thousand, while the Lake Tahoe Basin as a whole draws roughly two million unique visitors a year. The court serving that shoreline is sized for the smaller of those two numbers.
Which agency made the stop affects what evidence exists in your case, including who wrote the report, what recording equipment was in use, and how the contact was documented. That is worth establishing early rather than after the first court date.
Is a charge handled differently at Lake Tahoe?
The law is the same as anywhere else in Nevada. What changes is the number of trips, the size of the court, and how long the whole thing takes.
Impaired driving is the charge most closely tied to this stretch of shoreline. A misdemeanor DUI is also one of the more serious charges that can be tried at Incline Justice Court from start to finish, so the venue question carries more weight here than it would elsewhere. How Nevada handles those cases is set out on our DUI defense page.
Drug charges and assault allegations arise here as well. Charged at the felony level, those move to Reno after the preliminary hearing, which lengthens the case without changing the defense.
Can a case here be resolved without jail?
Sometimes it can, depending on the charge and the circumstances. Incline Justice Court administers court-ordered sentencing requirements that include house arrest, drug and alcohol testing, and community work service as alternatives to a jail sentence.
Whether any of those options are available in a particular case depends on the offense, the person’s record, and the judge’s assessment. No outcome can be promised in advance. What an attorney can do is work out early which of those alternatives is realistic and build the case around it.
Talk With Richard P. Davies Before Your First Court Date
A criminal charge does not improve by waiting. Options that are open early in a case can be gone by the time it reaches a trial setting, and decisions made before anyone has looked at the file are hard to walk back.
As a Lake Tahoe criminal defense lawyer, Richard P. Davies, Esq. can review what happened, tell you what you are actually facing, and help you decide what comes next. Call (775) 360-6894 for a free consultation.