Source: https://www.shouselaw.com/nevada/personal-injury/qualified-immunity
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 07:09:39+00:00

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Therefore, law enforcement officers who committed police misconduct in Nevada may not be able to escape civil liability in a personal injury lawsuit if their actions were unjustifiable or not in line with their training.
People injured by a state or city employee in Nevada are never barred from bringing a personal injury lawsuit against the state or city government. In many cases, accident victims may be able to avoid a lawsuit altogether by filing a notice of claim and settling with the government.
Police may be able to escape prosecution for causing an injury as long as they were acting reasonably.
Nevada courts grant government employees substantial leeway to make decisions about how to react to the varied situations they are presented with throughout the day. Even if any harm they caused was avoidable, qualified immunity should still protect them from liability as long as they were acting reasonably.
Example: A murder suspect leads police on a high-speed car chase through a Henderson neighborhood. During the chase, one of the police officers makes a wide turn in order to stay on the suspect's tail and in the process sideswipes a parked vehicle. In Nevada, qualified immunity probably would protect the police officer from property damage liability even if making a wide turn was not necessary to catch the suspect. Since the police officer was reasonably acting in the course of his duty, he should not be prosecuted for negligently causing property damage.
Learn more about car accident lawsuits in Nevada.
Note that qualified immunity does not serve as a defense in personal injury cases if the government employee acted in "bad faith." In other words, personal injury victims may sue law government employees personally if they deliberately act in an unlawful or unreasonable way.
Police who act in bad faith are not immune from prosecution.
Example: A liberal UNLV political science professor fails a conservative student in his class solely because of his politics. If the student can show that he did not otherwise deserve to fail and that the professor acted unreasonably, then the professor cannot claim qualified immunity if the student decides to sue him.
Learn more about personal injury lawsuits against Nevada schools.
Government officials accused of breaking federal law can claim qualified immunity under federal law as long as they were acting reasonably in the course of their job. These cases frequently involve police officers accused of committing Section 1983 civil rights violations in Nevada.
Example: A LVMPD police officer is performing a traffic stop on a suspect for failure to yield when the suspect suddenly flees. While chasing after him, the officer warns the suspect that he will get tased if he does not stop. The suspect keeps running. The suspect seems to be at a healthy weight and is not otherwise compromised, so the officer decides to tase him once. The suspect falls to the floor and enters into a coma for several days, which is an unusual reaction to being tased once. If the suspect then sues the officer for violating his constitutional rights by tasing him, the officer can probably claim that qualified immunity protects him from prosecution. Even though the suspect sustained injuries by falling into a coma, the officer acted reasonably and lawfully under the circumstances: It is standard police practice to tase an escaping suspect, the officer gave a verbal warning, the suspect seemed healthy, and he tased him only once.
Example: A LVMPD police officer is performing a traffic stop for running a red light when the suspect suddenly runs away. The suspect does not seem armed or dangerous, but the officer presumes he is dangerous because he is black and shoots him. After the suspect falls to the ground and holds up his hands in surrender, the officer lets his police dog maul the suspect. Later the suspect sues the police officer for violating his constitutional rights by using racial profiling in Nevada, unlawful deadly police force in Nevada, and unlawful use of police dogs in Nevada. The officer probably would not be able to claim qualified immunity because his actions were clearly outside the bounds of what is considered reasonable.
Federal qualified immunity laws are similar to Nevada's.
Also learn about suing for false imprisonment in Nevada, jail and prison neglect in Nevada and unlawful police shootings in Nevada.
Sovereign immunity does not shield accident victims from suing city or state governments in Nevada.
Continue scrolling down to learn specific information about suing the state of Nevada and the city of Las Vegas.
When a person gets injured by a Nevada state employee or on Nevada state property, he/she may file a personal injury lawsuit right away and/or submit a completed formal claim form to the Nevada Attorney General. The claim form is a way to avoid litigation and pursue a settlement more quickly.
Many accident victims elect to submit a claim form against the State of Nevada in an effort to avoid a lawsuit.
The attorney general's office will then either approve the claim and pay or else deny the claim. If the claim is denied, the victim can still bring a lawsuit as long as no more than two (2) years have passed since the injury.
The process of bringing a personal injury lawsuit against the City of Las Vegas is similar to the process of suing the State of Nevada. Victims may either bring a lawsuit right away or try to avoid a lawsuit altogether by submitting a "notice of claim" to the City.
Note that these supporting documents become public documents once the claimant submits them. Most claims are processed within six weeks.
If the City accepts liability and the parties agree to a settlement, the settlement becomes public record. If the City of Las Vegas rejects liability for the claim, the claimant can then consult with his/her attorney about going forward with a civil lawsuit against the City.
Personal injury cases must be brought within two (2) years of the accident. Also, note that personal injury damages against the City of Las Vegas are capped at $100,000 per claim, and judges may not impose punitive damages against the City.
People whose vehicles have been damaged by a Las Vegas city employee may be able to get a rental vehicle free of charge.
Have you been injured in an accident in Nevada? Call our Las Vegas personal injury attorneys for a FREE consultation at 702-DEFENSE (702-333-3673). We may be able to win you a large settlement to cover all your expenses and more without having to go to trial.
Injured in California by a public employee? See our article on the California Torts Claim Act.
NRS 41.032; Falline v. GNL v. Corp., 107 Nev. 1004, 823 P.2d 888 (1991)("[A]n employee who has suffered damage as a result of the negligent or bad faith failure or refusal by a self-insured employer or its administrator/agent, to process and timely pay claims properly asserted under the Nevada Industrial Insurance Act (NRS 616) may pursue a tort action in accordance with the limitations set forth in this opinion.").
Mullenix v. Luna, 136 S. Ct. 305, 308 (2015).
Sandoval v. Las Vegas Metro Police Dep't, 756 F.3d 1154 (9th Cir. 2014)("For qualified immunity purposes, in determining whether a constitutional right was clearly established, it is not enough that there is a generally established proposition that excessive use of force is unlawful...Rather, the "contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right." Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194 (2001) It is, however, "not necessary that the alleged acts have been previously held unconstitutional, as long as the unlawfulness [of defendant's actions] was apparent in light of pre-existing law." San Jose Charter of Hells Angels Motorcycle Club v. City of San Jose, 402 F.3d 962, 977 (9th Cir. 2005); Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223 (2009)("[A]n officer conducting a search is entitled to qualified immunity where clearly established law does not show that the search violated the Fourth Amendment.").
NRS 41.035; NRS 11; NAC 41.100.
Id.; Filing a Notice of Claim, City of Las Vegas, Frequently Asked Questions, lasvegasnevada.gov.

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