The Supreme Court’s Technology Department has done it again. Quietly adding even more features to the appellate courts’ electronic filings site, www.ncappellatecourts.org. The filing site has long allowed attorneys and the...more
It’s not every day that the Court of Appeals spends almost 12 pages talking about the appellate rules, including why rules compliance is so important. But that’s exactly what the Court of Appeals did in Harney v. Harney. ...more
When you read about someone breaking into an unlocked door in rural North Carolina you may hear sighs about the death of the good old days. But leave the front door wide open all night and even the sweetest southern grandma...more
A recent opinion out of the North Carolina Court of Appeals is causing comment in the criminal bar. In In The Matter Of J.B.P, (No. COA23-269), a juvenile petition was filed against the juvenile, alleging possession of...more
Big news out of the Court of Appeals for criminal practitioners. In State v. McLean, the Court of Appeals addressed a notice of appeal that was given orally the day after the trial ended and the defendant was sentenced. There...more
Long-time readers of this blog may remember the fun I’ve had finding photos reflecting the ups and downs of en banc rehearing in the Court of Appeals. The General Assembly first authorized en banc review in 2016, with the...more
Oral argument in the appellate courts typically last an hour, with 30 minutes allotted to each side to present arguments. But might a shorter oral argument period be more productive if the parties knew ahead of time the...more
So much of the law is geared towards addressing what happens when two black-letter principles apply simultaneously but point to different outcomes. The Court of Appeals had to resolve just such a conflict this week in In...more
The North Carolina Court of Appeals entered the Bruen Second Amendment debate this week with its decision in State v. Radomski. First, a bit of background: In its landmark New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen...more
On May 7, 2024 the North Carolina Court of Appeals issued thirty-three published opinions There’s a lot to chew on here. Here’s my summary of a few of the more interesting or unusual cases. Warren v. Cielo...more
It is with sadness that I report on the recent death of retired Chief Judge John Martin. He had been fighting cancer for several years and went down swinging. His funeral, held in Raleigh on April 25, 2024, was packed....more
When discovery goes so off the rails that a court declares a party “has stalled the progress” of a case, prejudiced its opponent and “wasted judicial resources,” there’s little doubt the sanctions sure to follow will be...more
I wrote a few days ago about some practitioners experiencing problems with overzealous spam filters catching important notices from our appellate courts. To be clear, this is a user-side issue, not a problem with the...more
Trigger warning: this post may cause appellate lawyers to have nightmares. There has been a spate of technical glitches lately that caused critical notices from the North Carolina Court of Appeals to end up in “quarantine”...more
If you have had a case tentatively calendared for oral argument in the Fourth Circuit recently, then you likely received a notice to submit a specific form indicating whether you are aware of any cases currently pending in...more
The North Carolina Court of Appeals has a new chief judge. Effective January 1, 2024, Chief Justice Newby has appointed Senior Associate Judge Chris Dillon as the new chief of the North Carolina Court of Appeals....more
Petitions for the writ of certiorari are a fairly routine part of North Carolina appellate practice and procedure, but the Appellate Rules do not provide much guidance on what those petitions should contain. Under Rule...more
I’ve spent a fair amount of time over the last few months working on the examination recently administered to those seeking to become North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialists in Appellate Practice. During my...more
Thirty years ago, Justice Scalia famously described the Supreme Court’s Lemon test as “some ghoul in a late-night horror movie that repeatedly sits up in its grave and shuffles abroad, after being repeatedly killed and...more
Amici will soon have more opportunities to share their views with our North Carolina appellate courts. Currently, our Appellate Rules expressly allow for amicus participation at the merits-briefing stage. N.C. R. App. P....more
If you handle appeals in North Carolina, you need a copy of the Style Guide. This guide is put together by the state’s Appellate Rules Committee and updated regularly. I’ve had to handle appeals in other states, where I...more
The Supreme Court of North Carolina gets a lot of questions and filings from unrepresented litigants. Often, those folks are in the wrong court (they should be in the Court of Appeals). Other times, they’re in the right...more
In a short order issued last week, the North Carolina Supreme Court narrowly voted to vacate a Court of Appeals’ opinion in connection with dismissing an appeal on mootness grounds. Well, I said that the order was short, but...more
Over the last few years, Confederate monuments in many North Carolina towns and cities have been objects of controversy. As one who parked for eighteen years in the shadow of the towering and now-departed Confederate...more
Judge Roger Gregory has completed his seven-year term as Chief Judge for the Fourth Circuit. Taking over as Chief is Judge Albert Diaz, who was on the North Carolina Business Court bench prior to being nominated and...more