If there is one filing you want to have perfect, it is the Notice of Appeal.  Our courts can be forgiving in this post-Dogwood era for many mistakes, but an insufficient or late Notice of Appeal may deprive the appellate courts of jurisdiction–torpedoing your appeal before it even starts.

The North Carolina Bar Association’s Appellate Rules Committee has just published a “Notice of Appeal Tip Sheet.”  The tip sheet provides guidance on the most common questions asked at this critical juncture in a (civil) case.  Of course, there is no substitute for reading the Appellate Rules and the cases decided thereunder, but the tip sheet can serve as a useful reminder of the key contours of this simple but essential filing.

We collect the best appellate resources on this blog’s “Rules & Practice Guides” site, where we will host a permanent copy of the tip sheet.

–Matt Leerberg