2014 Nevada Revised Statutes
Chapter 0 - PRELIMINARY CHAPTER
NRS 0.025 - Use of may, must, shall and is entitled ; explanation of flush lines.

1. Except as otherwise expressly provided in a particular statute or required by the context:

(a) May confers a right, privilege or power. The term is entitled confers a private right.

(b) May not or no * * * may abridges or removes a right, privilege or power.

(c) Must expresses a requirement when:

(1) The subject is a thing, whether the verb is active or passive.

(2) The subject is a natural person and:

(I) The verb is in the passive voice; or

(II) Only a condition precedent and not a duty is imposed.

(d) Shall imposes a duty to act.

(e) Shall be deemed or shall be considered creates a legal fiction.

(f) Shall not imposes a prohibition against acting.

2. Except as otherwise required by the context, text of a statute that:

(a) Follows subsections, paragraphs, subparagraphs or sub-subparagraphs that are introduced by a colon;

(b) Is not designated as a separate subsection, paragraph, subparagraph or sub-subparagraph; and

(c) Begins flush to the left margin rather than immediately following the material at the end of the final subsection, paragraph, subparagraph or sub-subparagraph,

applies to the section as a whole, in the case of subsections, or to the subdivision preceding the colon as a whole rather than solely to the subdivision that the text follows. The symbol in bills and in Nevada Revised Statutes indicates the beginning of such text.

(Added to NRS by 1991, 809; A 2003, 2094)