Effective March 1, Section 240A.120 of the Nevada Revised Statutes requires legal document assistants to post a $50,000 surety bond. This new bond requirement will promote ethical business practices and legal compliance by contractually binding legal document assistants to the Secretary of State and an independent financial agency.
Any breach of the Nevada Revised Statutes will present the opportunity for afflicted parties to take legal document assistants to court, effectively ridding lawyers of some of the liability from potential malicious behaviors appropriated by their colleagues.
Section 240A.030 outlines the following actions as singular qualifiers for the surety bond requirement:
“(1) Preparing or completing any pleading, application or other document for the client
(2) Translating an answer to a question posed in such a document
(3) Securing any supporting document, such as a birth certificate, required in connection with the legal matter
(4) Submitting a completed document on behalf of the client to a court or administrative agency”
Again, this surety bond exists to ensure ethical business practices of legal document assistants. The following professionals may have an exemption from posting the surety bond on a case-by-case basis:
- secretaries and receptionists who do not handle legal documents
- authorized attorneys
- employees who receive direct compensation from the aforementioned attorneys
- Nevada law students
- government entities and their ambassadors
- nonprofit organizations
- legal assistance assigned during military service
- a person licensed with the United States Government
- a corporation or LLC acting for itself through an employee
- a commercial wedding chapel
- a person who provides computer programs/legal forms that allow others to streamline the legal document creation phase
The newly required Nevada legal document assistant surety bond will have a three-year term, and all applicants should expect to pay a credit-based premium on the $50,000 bond amount. At SuretyBonds.com, applicants with credit scores at or near 700 can secure rates anywhere from 1-5% of the bond amount ($500-2,500).
For a preview of the bond form or to review the frequently-asked questions about this new legal document assistant surety bond requirement, view the bond-specific page created by the Nevada Secretary of State.
Click here to learn more about surety bonds. If you have any questions or wish to get bonded, connect with one of our surety specialists at 1-800-308-4358 or online.