Nevada Casualty Study Guide

Nevada keeps the compulsory auto limits in the motor vehicle law, industrial insurance in chapters 616A to 617, and only the coverage rules in the insurance code — where it splits them again. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage answer to two chapters carrying opposite rules, where most states run one rule for both.

One product, two rules, two chapters

NRS 690B.020(1) never orders an insurer to sell uninsured motorist coverage; it forbids selling the policy without it — no motor vehicle liability policy “may be delivered or issued for delivery in this State unless coverage is provided.” The exit is a written rejection “on a form furnished by the insurer describing the coverage being rejected,” and the clause summaries drop gives it a life span: it holds “upon any renewal … unless the coverage is then requested in writing by the named insured.”

Underinsured coverage sits elsewhere. NRS 687B.145(2) makes it a duty to offer “on a form approved by the Commissioner” at the bodily injury limits sold; no reoffer is needed on a replacement or amended policy, but “each renewal must include a copy of the form offering such coverage.” An insured who signed nothing has UM and no UIM.

Its trigger is damages, not face amounts: recovery to the insured’s own limits “to the extent that those damages exceed the limits … carried by that owner or operator.” And NRS 687B.145(4) strips subrogation from any insurer that pays underinsured benefits.

25/50/20, and the operator that is not a floor

NRS 485.185(1) states the limits flat: “In the amount of” $25,000 for one person, “in the amount of” $50,000 for two or more subject to that per-person limit, $20,000 for property of others. Not “not less than.” One chapter over the operator flips — NRS 690B.020(2) requires UM “not less than the minimum limits for liability insurance for bodily injury” under chapter 485. Same figures, opposite grammar.

No personal injury protection statute exists. NRS 687B.145(3) requires an offer of medical expense coverage “in an amount of at least $1,000” on a passenger car or motorcycle policy — a floor on the offer, not a mandate to buy. The one alternative to a policy is narrow: NRS 485.380(1) allows self-insurance above 10 registered motor vehicles — eleven.

Clauses Nevada permits, and the conditions that kill them

Anti-stacking language is permitted rather than required, and conditionally void. NRS 687B.145(1) lets a policy cap multi-policy recovery at “the higher of the applicable limits,” but it must be “in clear language and be prominently displayed,” and it is void where the insured bought separate coverage on the same risk at a premium calculated for full reimbursement. The household exclusion at NRS 687B.147 survives only on paperwork: a Commissioner-approved disclosure “printed in at least 12-point type,” names “handwritten by the insured and followed by the full signature of the insured,” and re-disclosure at renewal.

The bar is 51, and the comparison is collective

NRS 41.141(1) preserves recovery where the plaintiff’s negligence “was not greater than” that of the parties against whom recovery is sought — so a plaintiff at exactly 50 recovers, halved, and “50 percent bar state” inverts the rule. The comparison is collective: 41.141(2)(a) measures the “combined negligence of multiple defendants.”

Compensation numbers that hide one section away

NRS 616B.612(1) reaches “every employer” from the first employee; no headcount appears anywhere. Wage replacement is 66 2/3 percent of the average monthly wage at NRS 616C.475(1), which states no cap; the cap hides in NRS 616A.065(1), the lesser of the actual wage or “one hundred fifty percent of the state average weekly wage … multiplied by 4.33,” a weekly figure grossed up, not a monthly one. The waiting period is elsewhere again: NRS 616C.400(1) pays nothing unless the injury incapacitates for “at least 5 consecutive days, or 5 cumulative days within a 20-day period,” after which compensation “must then be computed from the date of the injury.”

Permanent partial pays 0.6 percent of the average monthly wage per 1 percent of whole-person impairment under NRS 616C.490(8)(d), “for 5 years or until the claimant is 70 years of age, whichever is later” — later, not sooner. Three clocks sit in two sections: 7 days to notify the employer at NRS 616C.015(1), 90 days to file with the insurer at NRS 616C.020(1), 1 year for a death claim at 616C.020(2). No state fund exists: NRS 616A.270 defines “insurer” exhaustively as four categories, all private or self-insured. Treatment comes from the Administrator’s panel under NRS 616C.090(3), with one free alternative selection within 90 days and deemed approval of a managed care change request unanswered after 10 days.