Attorney seeks to oust incumbent in Clark County District Court race 

Judge Veronica Barisich is seeking a second term in Clark County District Court Department 5. 

She faces a challenge from Tracy Hibbetts, a prosecutor who is making her second run for the bench. 

Barisich, who attended Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Michigan, and has been admitted to the Nevada Bar since 2005, says the most unexpected aspect of her first term on the bench is the caseload. 

“My docket has been all civil, including two specialty courts, which are medical malpractice and probate,” Barisich told the Current. “I’m one of the nine medical malpractice judges and one of only three probate judges. What has surprised me the most is just the amount of cases that I’ve been given and that I’ve maintained,” 

Barisich adds she reads “everything that comes through the door.” 

Hibbetts says she chose to challenge Barisich for several reasons.

“When it’s a low-information, low-turnout election year, where the top of the ballot is the governor and constitutional offices, you tend to want to be on the top of the ballot as much as you can, so voters don’t get ballot fatigue,” she observed, adding that Barisch’s name “doesn’t really pop up in the community.” 

Hibbetts also cited Barisich’s “high reversal rate on appeal” as a reason for challenging her. 

Of 52 cases appealed in her first term, appeals courts found Barisich to be in error a third of the time, according to Our Nevada Judges, which tracks judicial data. 

“When a case is appealed, it comes with the opportunity to learn,” Barisich said. “If my decision and my analysis was correct, then that’s just fermented. If it was half correct or half not correct, then we learn something about the law. And there are some cases that are issues of first impression that we don’t have specific case law on. It’s very valuable when we can receive case law.”

Being a judge, she says, “is always a learning experience.”

Of the 145 attorneys who participated in her evaluation in the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Judging the Judges 2025 survey, 73% recommended Barisich be retained. Her highest scores were for integrity while her lowest scores were for legal ability. 

The judge notes she didn’t find the feedback to be helpful, adding she wasn’t provided with the comments. “All I gleaned is that I’m here to do my job, and I keep on trying to do it better.”

Barisich raised $317,000 and had $245,000 on hand as of July. 

She’s endorsed by a dozen law enforcement associations; a variety of labor unions, including Laborers 872, SEIU Nevada, Southern Nevada Building Trades, Teamsters Nevada; and community organizations such as Independent Black Voters and Hispanics in Politics. 

She’s also endorsed by the Third Branch PAC, an organization that bills itself as nonpartisan but is funded solely by the Nevada Republican Club.   

Hibbetts earned her law degree at California Western School of Law. She’s been a member of the Nevada Bar since 2012. 

This is Hibbetts’ second run for the bench. She came in third in a four-way primary race in 2022 for Las Vegas Justice Court Department 6, a seat won by Jessica Goodey in the general election.

Since then, she left her job as a public defender to become a prosecutor, a move she says has given her “a more well-rounded understanding of the criminal justice arena.”  

While she worked for civil firms before law school, the bulk of her experience is in criminal law. The seat she is seeking hears civil cases. 

“Each department’s assignment is not permanent,” she notes. “It is based on the person elected into the seat. If I’m elected, I’m not necessarily inheriting an all civil docket,” she said, adding that when you run for the bench “you jump in knowing that you may have to do something that’s outside your arena. “

Hibbetts’ husband Brian is a retired Las Vegas Metropolitan Police sergeant and a Republican state assemblyman. 

“It would be silly to say that we don’t talk about work at home, but obviously we have different party affiliation because I believe that judicial candidates should remain neutral,” Hibbetts says, adding she’s registered as nonpartisan.  

Hibbetts serves on the board of the Clark County Law Foundation as well as the Asian Bar Association of Nevada, in addition to volunteering in the community. 

She’s endorsed by Culinary Local 226, the Southern Nevada Building Trades Union, and several law enforcement associations, including the Clark County Prosecutors Association, the Nevada Association of Public Safety Officers, and the Clark County District Attorney Investigators Association.

Hibbetts raised $142,000 as of July and had $128,000 on hand. She says raising money is easier for District Court, because that’s where more civil law attorneys practice. 

Early voting begins Saturday, Oct. 17. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.