The Nevada military affidavit

How Nevada handles it

Nevada's own rules never mention the subject. Neither Rule 55 of the Nevada Rules of Civil Procedure nor the Justice Court Rules of Civil Procedure contains the word "military" anywhere, read at leg.state.nv.us and in the Supreme Court's ADKT 376 order in August 2026. NRCP 55(a) has the clerk enter default on a showing "by affidavit or otherwise" that a party failed to plead, and NRCP 55(b)(1) asks only for an affidavit of the amount due plus a statement that the defendant is neither a minor nor an incapacitated person. The military duty on a Nevada filer comes from 50 U.S.C. § 3931 alone, and the individual courts collect it on their own paperwork.

The statewide self-help forms do not collect it either. The Nevada Supreme Court's Self-Help Center publishes an Application for Entry of Default (2023) that recites service or waiver under NRCP 4.1, the 21-day answer deadline, the Notice of Intent to Seek Default required only in the 10th and 11th Judicial Districts (Churchill, Lander, Mineral and Pershing counties), and a request that the clerk enter default under NRCP 55(a). It says nothing about the armed forces. Its companion Clerk's Default is equally silent.

Washoe County closes the gap in a single sentence. In Packet P-1 of the Second Judicial District Court's Family Division, the Declaration in Support of Default (rev. 2/2019) states: "The Defendant / Respondent is not in the active military service of the United States, is not under 18 years of age and is not an incompetent person." That sentence is the entire military statement. There is no facts line, no "unable to determine" box, and no place to check that a status report is attached.

The order of operations matters more than the paperwork. Packet P-1 runs Notice of Intent to Take Default first if the other side has appeared or told you they oppose the case, with at least a seven-day wait; then the Clerk's Default; then the Declaration in Support of Default; then a Request for Submission; then the Notice of Entry of Decree or Order. The packet's cover page lists the conditions for using it at all, including that more than 21 calendar days have passed since the defendant was served with the complaint or petition and summons.

The perjury exposure is printed on the packet cover rather than buried in a rule: "The penalty for willfully making a false statement under penalty of perjury is a minimum of 1 year, and a maximum of 4 years in prison, in addition to a fine of not more than $5,000.00. N.R.S. §199.145." A false military statement in Washoe County therefore carries a Nevada prison exposure alongside the federal misdemeanor at 50 U.S.C. § 3931(c).

What trips filers up here

• Because no statewide form asks the question, the answer depends on which county and which court you are in. A Washoe family filer signs the sentence above. A Clark County civil or justice court filer works from that court's own default paperwork, so read the packet you were handed rather than assuming Nevada has one document.
• The Washoe sentence bundles three findings into one clause: military service, age and competence. A filer who is confident about age and competence can sign straight past the military clause without ever running a search.
• There is no facts line. Section 3931(b)(1)(A) of title 50 asks for "necessary facts to support the affidavit," and this form gives you nowhere to write them. Attach the Defense Manpower Data Center certificate as an exhibit and note the search date on the record rather than relying on the sentence alone.
• Nevada's Self-Help Center is organized around family law. Divorce, custody, separate maintenance, annulment, name change, guardianship, probate, adoption and protection orders each get their own forms section, and the default forms sit under Miscellaneous Forms rather than under a civil-litigation heading.

Signing it: declaration, no notary

The form ends "I declare under penalty of perjury under the law of the State of Nevada that the foregoing is true and correct," with a date line, a signature line and a printed-name line. No notary. The packet cover sheet prints the penalty for a willful false statement.

No notary is needed. The signature block is an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury, which is what 50 U.S.C. § 3931(b)(4) expressly allows. Signing it knowing the military statement is false is still a federal crime, and a state perjury exposure on top.

Getting the military-status answer right

The affidavit is only as good as the search behind it. The Defense Manpower Data Center runs the free lookup that courts and creditors rely on, and since 2026 it requires a free account even for a single record. Our guide to the DMDC SCRA website covers the search itself, what a "no information found" result does and does not prove, and the batch route for high-volume filers. The federal rules behind this form, including what happens when you genuinely cannot determine status, sit on the hub page.

If one was filed against you

A false affidavit is not a technicality. In May 2026 the Justice Department settled with a Florida property manager that swore a Navy sailor was not on active duty, took a default eviction judgment, and left him with an eviction on his record that a dozen landlords then refused to rent around: $60,000 to one servicemember plus a civil penalty . If a default judgment was entered against you while you were serving, it can be reopened; the default-judgment shield walks the deadlines.

Serving in Nevada and looking for what the state adds to your own protections rather than court procedure? That is a different page: Nevada SCRA benefits.