Sometimes you fall headlong into a chorus you thought you knew by heart—only to discover the bridge is where all the action is. For appellate practitioners, that action seems to
Continue Reading Complicated: Premature Oral Notices of Appeal & Writs of Certiorari
It’s the stuff of nightmares: you drop your notice of appeal in the mail 24 days after a summary-judgment order is entered against your client, trusting the post office will
Continue Reading Court of Appeals Saves Appellant From Post Office Predicament
Morgan’s prior blog post on State v. McLean started the wheels turning on a topic I find fascinating: oral notices of appeal.
Civil lawyers love written notices of appeal. Have
Continue Reading The Lights Are Still On: Oral Notices of Appeals in Criminal Cases
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
Continue Reading At Trial: Court of Appeals Defines Time Within Which Oral Notice of Appeal May Be Given in Criminal Cases
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
Continue Reading Certiorari Petitions in the Court of Appeals: From Ordinary to Extra-Ordinary
The Court of Appeals’ latest batch of opinions includes several reminders about the importance of proving that appellate jurisdiction is proper in an appellant’s opening brief. Not in a conclusory
Continue Reading Relying on a Motion to Dismiss Response to Address Appellate Jurisdiction Arguments? Maybe Don’t Count on It
Court of Appeals Petition Rulings Unmasked
Continue Reading Unmasked: Court of Appeals to Begin Disclosing Identities and Votes of Members of Petition Panel … 90 Days Later
This week’s batch of opinions from the Court of Appeals had several appellate issues worth a mention.
First, the en banc saga comes to a close. As you’ll recall, the
Continue Reading Appellate Grab bag: En banc, appellate sanctions, and certiorari
A writ of certiorari is a discretionary, extraordinary writ—and is therefore never granted as a matter of right. See, e.g., King v. Taylor, 188 N.C. 450, 451, 124
Continue Reading A New Kind of “Merit” Badge: The Petition for Writ of Certiorari
Last 
week, the Court of Appeals returned to a general question that this blog has addressed before: When is a Notice of Appeal Filing Deadline or Requirement Jurisdictional? In this
Continue Reading Can the Cart (Appeal) Go Before the Horse (Entry of Order Being Appealed)?