A few weeks ago the North Carolina Court of Appeals plowed new ground: issuing the first opinion to cite Appellate Rule 38(b) since the Appellate Rules were adopted in 1975. This long-neglected rule was the catalyst for a...more
In April 2017, the General Assembly surprised appellate stakeholders by adopting legislation shifting a subclass of Rule 3.1 juvenile appeals—Termination of Parental Rights (“TPR”) appeals—to the Supreme Court’s mandatory...more
On Monday, Governor Roy Cooper appointed Judge Mark Davis to the Associate Justice seat recently vacated by now-Chief Justice Beasley. Soon-to-be Justice Davis has served on the North Carolina Court of Appeals since 2012....more
Post-Dogwood, cases in which appeals are dismissed for non-jurisdictional rules violations are rare. Last Tuesday, the Court of Appeals issued an opinion that bucked that trend—along with a dissent.
In Ramsey v. Ramsey,...more
You already know that the Supreme Court adopted numerous amendments to the Rules of Appellate Procedure at the end of 2018. However, some of the most significant changes are occurring behind the scenes at the appellate...more
Practitioners: Say goodbye to goldenrod printed records. As I previously predicted, both appellate clerks will no longer be mailing printed records to the parties. The previously entitled “Notice of Mailing of the Printed...more
Did you enjoy opening and comparing three different Supreme Court orders to determine the most current version of a particular Appellate Rule? For those twisted few who did, your joy is gone....more
In October 2018, I gave a CLE presentations with (now recently sworn in) Judge Allegra Collins: “Life Preservers on the Titanic: Issues Not Properly Preserved for Appellate Review.” Part of the presentation posed this...more
It is beginning to feel like an bi-annual holiday tradition between me and our blog readers: another rule-update summary. Yesterday afternoon, the Supreme Court issued its latest order amending the North Carolina Rules of...more
On Tuesday, the Court of Appeals issued its latest batch of opinions. Good news: the impending turkey feast has not slowed the court’s pace in grappling with interesting appellate issues. Bad news: still no real resolution...more