What does it mean to seal an annulment in Nevada?
Essentially, it means that any court pleadings having to do with your annulment case cannot be accessed by the public once the annulment file is sealed. Also, the court’s online database will return no results regarding your sealed annulment if your case number, or your name, are entered into it.
Currently in Nevada, the summary of annulment cases appears on the court’s online database. At this time, only the names of pleadings appear on that database, and not the entire document. In some states, the entire pleadings appear online. We are not aware of any current plans for Nevada to provide entire pleadings online, but that could change in the future.
An annulment is public record and anyone willing to present themselves at court and request a case file will be taken to a reading room, asked to check out the file, equivalent to checking out a book at the library, except that the file must remain in that room. The person who checks out the file can then read all of the pleadings in the file. Copies of all, or of any one, of the documents in a file can be requested by anyone.
Sealing an annulment case is a personal decision. If you feel uncomfortable knowing that anyone can read your annulment pleadings by simply presenting themselves at court and asking to do so, you might want to request that the court seal the file.
Some judges will not sign an Order to Seal a file in an annulment because of the way they read the statute on sealing annulments, though most judges will once an affidavit providing a good reason for the request to seal is filed.
A one-signature annulment obtained by Default can never be sealed. This is to allow access to the file by the Defendant.
Also, know that once sealed, an annulment file cannot be accessed except by court order. That means by you too, unless you present yourself at court with photo identfication. Be sure to obtain at least two certified decrees of annulment before you request that the file be sealed to avoid the hassle of obtaining one after the file is sealed.
Feel free to Contact Us, or call/text us at 702.680-1780 with any questions on sealing an annulment in Nevada.
