A Clark County judge on Thursday dismissed allegations of legal malpractice against Nevada’s Acting U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah stemming from a COVID-era lawsuit but declined to toss out similar claims leveled against Joey Gilbert, a Reno-based attorney and former Republican governor candidate.

A Nevada woman filed a lawsuit against Chattah and Gilbert this year that alleged inadequate legal representation in a wrongful death lawsuit they brought on her behalf. 

It alleged a Northern Nevada hospital was responsible for her father’s death by administering the COVID-19 drug Remdesivir, despite her family’s pleas that the drug not be provided. However, the woman later claimed the drug was never actually administered and that Chattah and Gilbert had misled her for personal gain. After the suit was filed, Gilbert said that “a reckoning is coming,” while Chattah wrote that, “They knew the science. They lied. They killed people. No mercy. No amnesty.”

The initial wrongful death lawsuit failed because the statute of limitations had expired.

But in a decision on Thursday on the legal malpractice case, Clark County Judge Jacob Reynolds determined that Chattah, who was not the primary lawyer in the case, was not involved in making the allegedly false representations to the woman, Melissa Dillon. As a result, he dismissed the case against Chattah.

“The information supplied about Chattah is that she tried to find a way to extend the statute of limitations argument and also gave a frank appraisal of the merits after the Complaint was unsuccessful,” the ruling said.

However, Reynolds said this did not apply to Gilbert. He dismissed multiple claims made against Gilbert, but kept many others open, including ones related to legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty and intentional misrepresentation.

“The allegations, evidence submitted in opposition, and argument at the Hearing all point to Attorney Gilbert being the person that communicated with Plaintiff, knew Plaintiff personally, sought attention in the media, etc.,” Reynolds wrote.

In a statement, Janeen Isaacson, Gilbert’s lawyer, said “We are confident that the true facts will result in the ultimate dismissal of this lawsuit.”

Lawyers representing Dillon and Chattah did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Still, the judge noted that evidence provided by Gilbert raises “serious questions of fact about the accuracy of Plaintiff’s allegations. However, the Court is bound, at this stage, to accept these allegations as true.”

The evidence in question likely relates to whether Remdesivir was actually administered to Dillon’s late father.

In her lawsuit, Dillon said she consulted an expert who reviewed medical records and determined the drug was not provided to her father. She said that Gilbert failed to sufficiently  review medical records before filing the lawsuit.

But records provided in a subsequent legal filing appear to show the drug was indeed administered. Dillon’s lawyer responded by saying that the drug had been ordered, but not administered.

The third defendant in the case is Gilbert’s father, Dr. Warren Gilbert, who is a critic of Remdesivir and provided an affidavit in the wrongful death lawsuit that said he believed the drug had been provided.

Warren Gilbert’s motion to dismiss has not yet been addressed.

Updated on 10/16/25 at 6:14 p.m. to include a statement from Gilbert's lawyer.