Repeatedly Ruled Against Workers

Veronica Barisich Ruled Against Severely Injured Worker

Judge Barisich threw out the case of a network engineer who alleged he “suffered multiple injuries” after the school district had its employees blow dust out of old computers with compressed air at the site where he was working— he developed a rash that turned to sepsis, then pneumonia, a collapsed lung, and a drug-resistant staph infection that put him in a medically induced coma for 12 days and cost him 60 pounds. Barisich dismissed his claim without leave to amend — but the Court of Appeals reversed, finding she never even applied the controlling legal test for that question and had simply assumed the result. The case was sent back with explicit instructions to do the analysis she skipped the first time. (Salas v. Clark County School District, 2022 Nev. App. Unpub. LEXIS 333, 07/21/22)

Denied Worker’s Right to Unemployment

Judge Barisich denied a worker's petition challenging a government agency’s decision to deny his unemployment benefits — a decision he argued was unsupported by the evidence, violated his due process rights, and reflected an abuse of discretion. The Nevada Court of Appeals reversed her, and on remand Barisich had to send the case back down to an appeals referee for a proper review. (Taylor v. Nevada Employment Security Division A-23-869306-J)

It's one entry in a broader pattern: she has handled at least 33 judicial review appeals from workers challenging the government bureaucracy’s denial of their unemployment benefits.

Unemployment appeals pattern (33+ cases)

Records show Barisich has ruled on at least 33 judicial-review petitions from Nevada workers appealing the state's denial of their unemployment benefits, and the outcomes lean heavily one direction: at least 25 of the 33 — roughly three-quarters — were dismissed or denied against the worker. Several of the denials specifically involved workers who'd been cut off from pandemic-era unemployment benefits. For a judge who handles such a large volume of unemployment-appeal cases, the pattern is stark: a Nevadan who loses their job, gets turned down for benefits – benefits they’ve already paid into the system for, and takes that fight to Barisich's courtroom loses the right to the benefit they themselves paid for roughly three times out of four. (DocketAlarm)

Refused to Allow a Jury Hear the Case of Paralyzed Victim

In April 2024, the Nevada Court of Appeals reversed Barisich for throwing out a medical malpractice case before it ever reached a jury. Cardiologist Keith Boman went in for back surgery and woke up with no feeling or movement in his leg after his surgeon "nicked" his spinal cord during the procedure. Barisich dismissed his malpractice claim outright, ruling as a matter of law that he'd filed too late — but the Court of Appeals found real factual disputes remained over when Boman should reasonably have known he had a claim, meaning that call belonged to a jury, not a judge cutting the case off at the motion-to-dismiss stage. Reversed and remanded. (Boman v. Elkanich, 548 P.3d 1232, 04/25/24)

The Pattern: Barisich rulings favor corporations over injured Nevadans

In October 2022, Barisich granted summary judgment for Neighborhood Health Center (dba Culinary Health Center) in a wrongful-death suit brought by the widow of a man who died of pneumonia complications, despite a medical expert's opinion that "significant deviations in [the] standard of care" contributed to his death.

In 2021, she granted summary judgment for a hospital in a case alleging a patient suffered fatal brain damage during cardiac-arrest treatment at a hospital — a suit that accused the hospital of "despicable conduct with a conscious disregard for the safety of others" in pursuit of profit; the case was later dismissed with prejudice by stipulation.