The court may after notice and hearing, order the clerk to issue a writ of attachment in the following cases:
1. In an action upon a judgment or upon a contract, express or implied, for the direct payment of money:
(a) If the judgment is not a lien upon or the contract is not secured by mortgage, lien or pledge upon real or personal property situated in this state; or
(b) If such lien or security has, without any act of the plaintiff or the person to whom the security was given, become valueless or insufficient in value to secure the sum due the plaintiff, in which case the attachment shall issue only for the unsecured portion of the amount due the plaintiff, which is equal to the excess of the amount due the plaintiff above the value of the security.
2. In any case where the attachment of the property of the defendant is allowed pursuant to this chapter or other provision of law.
3. In any other case where the court finds that extraordinary circumstances exist which will make it improbable for the plaintiff to reach the property of the defendant by execution after the judgment has been entered.
(Added to NRS by 1973, 1171)