Nevada Confirms Expanded Protections For Landowners Under Recreational Use Statute

Recreational use statutes are designed to promote access to recreation by reducing the risk landowners might face from providing that access. The Supreme Court of Nevada has recognized a revised recreational use statute now provides greater protections to landowners than were previously available. These protections also are available in more types of claims.

In Abbott v. City of Henderson, Abbott was a parent who tripped and fell over a four-inch drop-off while assisting her child on a slide. She sued the City, which asserted immunity per Nevada's recreational use statute, NRS 41.510. The Supreme Court noted that earlier Nevada case law limiting NRS 41.510 to rural, semi-rural or nonresidential properties was no longer valid because the statute had been amended to apply to "any premises." Thus, municipal playgrounds are now covered, to the extent they weren't before.