Nevada has no standalone probate court of record. Every estate is filed in the district court for the county where the decedent was living at death. Nevada's 16 counties and Carson City are served by numbered judicial districts.
Jonathan Khorsandi on Aug 31, 2026
Nevada has no standalone probate court of record. Every estate is filed in the district court for the county where the decedent was living at death, with the county clerk, acting as clerk of the district court, holding the file. Nevada's 16 counties and Carson City are served by numbered judicial districts, several of which cover more than one county.
Clark County is the market that matters. The Las Vegas metro holds the majority of the state's population, and every estate belonging to a resident of Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas or the surrounding unincorporated areas runs through one court: the Eighth Judicial District Court.
That single-court structure makes Clark County one of the more workable probate markets in the country from a desk. The constraint is not fragmentation, as it is in Georgia or Florida. It is knowing what the portal actually covers, which of six published phone numbers reaches a probate clerk, and which statutory deadline tells you when a personal representative is genuinely ready to talk about the house.
Yes. A will delivered to the district court clerk becomes a public record open to inspection under NRS 136.050, and the estate file that follows it is public too. You do not need to be an heir, an attorney or a party to the case.
Two limits apply in Clark County, and both matter before you plan a workflow around online access.
Sealed cases and information exempt from disclosure do not appear on the court's online portal at all. And the portal is not a complete archive: the Eighth Judicial District Court holds records from September 1909 forward, but most of what can be searched online dates from 1990 to present. Anything older needs a staff search, charged per year, per name.
In the district court for the county where the decedent lived at the time of death, not where they died and not where the property sits.
Estates belonging to Clark County residents go to the Eighth Judicial District Court in Las Vegas. Carson City is a consolidated municipality served by the First Judicial District Court, which also covers Storey County, so a Carson City estate is not filed under a surrounding county's court.
Nevada has no statewide probate commissioner office, which is a fact that gets misread. In Clark County the Eighth Judicial District Court assigns probate and trust matters to two probate commissioners, Departments PC-1 and PC-2, sitting as hearing masters. Their recommendations go to a district judge for approval. If you are reading a Clark County docket, expect a commissioner's name on it.
Estate size decides which route the personal representative takes, and the route decides how fast the property can move. All four thresholds below reflect Nevada law as amended by SB 404 in the 2025 session, effective 1 October 2025.
| Administration type | Threshold | Creditor claim window | Statute |
|---|---|---|---|
| General administration | Above $500,000 | 90 days after first publication or mailing | NRS 147.040 |
| Summary administration | $500,000 or less, after deducting encumbrances | 60 days after first publication or mailing | NRS 145.040, NRS 145.060 |
| Set aside without administration | $150,000 or less | No formal creditor period; petition permitted at least 30 days after death | NRS 146.070 |
| Small estate affidavit | $25,000 or less in personal property, or $150,000 for a surviving spouse | 40-day wait from death, no court case opened | NRS 146.080 |
The practical read: summary administration compresses the creditor clock from 90 days to 60, so a summary estate with real property in it is roughly a month ahead of a general administration estate filed the same week. The small estate affidavit route covers personal property only and produces no case file, so it will never appear in your search results.
Testate, meaning the decedent left a will, produces a petition to probate, a named executor and letters testamentary. The direction of the estate is usually settled from the start.
Intestate, meaning no valid will, produces a petition for letters of administration and a court-appointed administrator. These are often the more productive filings, because several heirs who never planned for the situation now jointly own a house none of them lives in.
Through the Eighth Judicial District Court's own portal for Clark County, and through the individual district court clerk for every other county. Nevada runs no unified statewide probate search.
The state's dominant probate market, covering Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas and the surrounding unincorporated areas.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Court | Eighth Judicial District Court, Probate Department |
| Probate Department address | Phoenix Building, 330 South 3rd Street, Las Vegas, NV 89101 |
| Probate Department phone | 702-455-2650 |
| Probate Department email | [email protected] |
| Probate Department hours | Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, closed 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM |
| Clerk's records office | Regional Justice Center, 200 Lewis Avenue, 3rd Floor, Las Vegas, NV 89155 |
| Records phone | 702-671-0555 |
| Records email | [email protected] |
| Clerk's Office hours | Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM (the building itself opens 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM) |
| Online search | Eighth Judicial District Court portal |
| E-filing | Odyssey File & Serve, through the court's filing page |
Two details on that table are worth flagging, because both are commonly published wrong. The Probate Department is a separate office from the Clerk's records counter, at a different address, with different hours and a different phone number: 702-455-2650 is the number for a probate-specific question, and 702-671-0555 reaches records. The Clerk's Office at the Regional Justice Center closes at 4:00 PM even though the building stays open until 5:00.
The portal confirms probate as a searchable case type alongside civil, criminal and family.
Basic case searching is available without an account. Registration is offered, and enhanced access is reserved for Nevada attorneys and justice partners; buying copies of filings through the portal carries a fee. The court publishes no statement that anonymous users can pull full document images, so plan on the docket being freely visible and the documents being a paid or in-person step.
One piece of practical guidance rather than court policy: a newly opened estate will not always appear the same day it is filed. If a case you expect to exist is not showing, call the Probate Department before concluding it was never opened.
| County | Court | Online estate search |
|---|---|---|
| Clark (Las Vegas metro) | Eighth Judicial District Court | Yes, most cases from 1990 forward; sealed cases excluded |
| All other Nevada counties | District court for the relevant judicial district | Varies by district; contact the county clerk directly |
Clark is the only Nevada county ProbateData covers, and it is also the only one with a probate search this usable. For an estate outside the Las Vegas metro, start with the district court clerk for that county rather than assuming a portal exists.
Running a search on the Clark County portal is free. Everything after that is on the Eighth Judicial District Court's published records fee schedule:
The pre-1990 search fee is the one to plan around. It is charged per year searched and per name, so a speculative ten-year search on a single name costs $5.00 before you have confirmed anything exists. For prospecting, work the 1990-forward portal and treat the staff search as a targeted last resort.
Certified copies matter mainly when a personal representative is submitting estate paperwork to a bank or a title company, which is a useful thing to know when you are the one explaining the process to them.
General administration commonly runs 6 to 18 months in Clark County, and summary administration is faster because the creditor window is shorter. Nevada sets no outside deadline for closing an estate, but it does impose fixed interim deadlines, and those are what keep generating public filings on estates that stall.
| Stage | Statutory position |
|---|---|
| Deliver the original will to the district court clerk | Within 30 days of death, NRS 136.050 |
| File the inventory and appraisement | Within 120 days of letters issuing, unless extended for good cause, NRS 144.010 |
| Notice to creditors, general administration | Published and mailed under NRS 147.010 and NRS 155.020 |
| Creditor claim window, general administration | 90 days from mailing or first publication, NRS 147.040 |
| Creditor claim window, summary administration | 60 days from mailing or first publication, NRS 145.060 |
| Set aside without administration | Petition permitted at least 30 days after death, NRS 146.070 |
The 120-day inventory deadline in NRS 144.010 is the single most useful date on that list. It is a hard obligation to produce a document listing the estate's property, and it means an estate that looked empty at filing may declare a house four months later. Diary the filings you passed on.
The most productive outreach point is 60 to 90 days after filing. Earlier than that, the personal representative is still dealing with letters and creditor notice. Much later and the property may already be listed.
The filing tells you an estate exists. Four more steps tell you whether it is worth your time.
1. Confirm which estates hold real property. Not every probate case involves a house. The petition may mention real property; the inventory and appraisement filed within 120 days of letters is the document that itemises it, with addresses and appraised values. An estate with an out-of-state personal representative and unencumbered property is the highest-priority profile in this market.
2. Cross-reference the Clark County Assessor. The Clark County Assessor searches by address or parcel number, which lets you confirm the parcel belongs to the estate and check the assessed value and tax status. Budget about five minutes per case.
3. Track the notice to creditors publication date. Nevada requires publication in the county, and the publication date starts the clock: 90 days under NRS 147.040 for general administration, 60 days under NRS 145.060 for summary administration. Once the window closes and claims are resolved, the estate is clear to sell. Publication dates are the closest thing this market has to a readiness signal.
4. Watch for the petition for sale. When a personal representative needs court authority to sell real property, they file a petition for sale and it appears on the public docket. If you have not made contact by then, that is your last practical window before someone else is under contract.
Las Vegas is not a falling market, and pitching estate sellers as though it is will cost you credibility on the first call.
Las Vegas REALTORS, formerly GLVAR, reported a May 2026 median price of $490,000 for existing single-family homes, up 2.1% year over year and an all-time record high, passing the prior record of $488,995. What softened was volume and absorption, not price. Total existing properties sold came to 2,575 for the month, with single-family sales down 1% and condo and townhome sales down 8.9% year over year. Unsold inventory grew: 6,784 single-family homes were listed without offers, up 2.1%, and 2,639 condos and townhomes were listed without offers, up 5.1%. Supply sat above three and a half months, slightly higher than a year earlier.
The condo and townhome segment is the one that fell, with a median of $295,000, down 3.9% year over year.
The honest argument for probate outreach here is not a price crash. It is that record prices with slower absorption means an estate property will sell for real money and will not sell instantly, so a personal representative who wants certainty of close and a shorter timeline has a reason to take your call. At a $490,000 median, the commission on a single closed estate sale is meaningful, and for an investor the same slower absorption is what creates room to negotiate on a property being sold as-is.
Follow-up is where most probate pipelines fail. Nevada estates run months, so a personal representative who says no in month two is a different conversation in month seven. A 60 to 90 day cadence separates the operators who close probate deals from the ones who collect lists.
One: Clark County, covering the Las Vegas metro, which is where the overwhelming majority of Nevada's probate filings originate.
Every lead is a verified court filing with a case number, not a death record or a pre-probate prediction. Each one carries the property records matched to the estate with the most recent owner of record, the personal representative skip traced with mailing address, phone and email where available, the attorney of record where one is named, and MLS tracking so you can see whether the property has already listed.
The manual version of this is the process above: portal searches on a weekly cadence, waiting on the 120-day inventory to learn whether an estate holds property, assessor cross-referencing on every case, publication dates logged by hand, and skip tracing after all of that. It works. For one agent running a handful of cases, it is viable. Built into a consistent monthly pipeline in a county this size, it is most of a working week.
You can see the full coverage list at probatedata.com/counties, or start a 7-day trial for $1 and search Clark County directly.
For the wider method across every state, see the national guide to finding probate records by county.
Yes. A will delivered to the district court clerk is a public record open to inspection under NRS 136.050, and the estate file that follows it is public too. You do not need to be an heir, an attorney or a party to the case. In Clark County, sealed cases and information exempt from disclosure do not appear on the court's online portal, and records older than 1990 generally require a staff search rather than an online one.
Through the district court for the county where the decedent lived. For the Las Vegas metro that is the Eighth Judicial District Court, whose portal at clarkcountycourts.us/portal lists probate as a searchable case type alongside civil, criminal and family. Search by decedent name in Last, First Middle Suffix format or by case number, and use the advanced search to filter by case type. Nevada has no unified statewide probate search, so for other counties start with the county clerk.
The Eighth Judicial District Court in Clark County. Its Probate Department is at the Phoenix Building, 330 South 3rd Street, Las Vegas, NV 89101, on 702-455-2650. The Clerk's records office is separate, at the Regional Justice Center, 200 Lewis Avenue, 3rd Floor, on 702-671-0555. Nevada has no statewide probate commissioner, but the Eighth Judicial District Court assigns probate and trust matters to two probate commissioners in Departments PC-1 and PC-2.
Four paths, all current under SB 404 as of 1 October 2025. Summary administration applies where the gross value after deducting encumbrances does not exceed $500,000 under NRS 145.040, and general administration applies above that. Set aside without administration applies at $150,000 or less under NRS 146.070. The small estate affidavit covers $25,000 or less in personal property, or $150,000 for a surviving spouse, under NRS 146.080, after a 40-day wait from the date of death.
General administration commonly runs 6 to 18 months in Clark County, and summary administration is faster because the creditor window is shorter. The original will must be delivered to the district court clerk within 30 days of death under NRS 136.050, and the inventory and appraisement is due within 120 days of letters issuing under NRS 144.010. Creditor claims run 90 days from mailing or first publication in general administration under NRS 147.040, and 60 days in summary administration under NRS 145.060.
Running a search on the Eighth Judicial District Court portal is free. The court's published fee schedule sets photocopies at $0.50 per page, certification at $3.00 per document or $5.00 if you supply the copy, and exemplification at $6.00 or $9.00 if you supply the copy. A staff search of pre-1990 records costs $0.50 per year, per name, which makes speculative searching of older records expensive.
Estate cases are numbered P-YY-XXXXXX-E and trust cases P-YY-XXXXXX-T, where YY is the two-digit filing year. A case number that begins with P and ends in E is an estate. The format is published by the Eighth Judicial District Court's Probate Department.
No. Las Vegas REALTORS reported a May 2026 median price of $490,000 for existing single-family homes, up 2.1% year over year and an all-time record high. What softened was volume and absorption: 2,575 existing properties sold in the month, 6,784 single-family homes were listed without offers, and supply sat above three and a half months. The condo and townhome segment did decline, to a median of $295,000, down 3.9% year over year.
