Judge Gale issued a “notice to the practicing bar” yesterday that “the Court will in the future expect a Notice of Designation to be filed with the appropriate Clerk of Superior Court within the time provided by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-45.4, and that failure to do may result in the Notice of Designation being deemed untimely, defeating a right to mandatory designation.”

See:  http://www.ncbusinesscourt.net/opinions/2014_NCBC_55.pdf#page=2

This is an extension of the Ehrenhaus (and Hartnett) decisions, where the Business Court held that a Notice of Appeal must be timely filed in the home county as well.  See prior blog posts on this topic here and here.

Bottom line—papers that are jurisdictional in nature (e.g., Notice of Designation, Notice of Appeal) must be filed in the home county timely.  Other papers follow the usual rule requiring that an extra copy be mailed to the home county after “filing” through the Business Court website.

-Patrick Kane