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Friday I blogged about a proposal to expand the Supreme Court’s mandatory appellate jurisdiction in Business Court cases.  The General Assembly is apparently seeking more changes for our state judiciary–including expanding the mandatory docket of the Supreme Court in another area of the law.

A proposed amendment by the Senate to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-27 (2013 Senate Bill 744, Section 18B.16(e)) would provide direct appeal to the North Carolina Supreme Court of both final and interlocutory orders that declare an act of the General Assembly unconstitutional.… Continue Reading

Mack Sperling reports this morning in his Business Litigation Report that the General Assembly is toying with “modernizing” the North Carolina Business Court.  Several significant changes are being proposed, but of particular interest to our readers is a proposal that could dramatically expand the docket of the Supreme Court.  If this portion of the bill is adopted, appeals from all final judgments issued by the Business Court in mandatory complex business cases would bypass the Court of Appeals and proceed directly to the North Carolina Supreme Court.… Continue Reading

A few weeks ago, I blogged on the Business Court’s dismissal of an untimely notice of appeal.  Today, the Court of Appeals, in a thoughtful 32-page opinion by Judge Marty Geer called In re Duke Energy Corp., gently smacked the hand of the North Carolina Utilities Commission for dismissing an appeal for lack of standing.  So why would the Business Court have the authority to dismiss an appeal, but the Utilities Commission did not? … Continue Reading

While we normally blog about matters of North Carolina appellate practice and procedure, occasionally an interesting article comes along that causes us to veer slightly off course. Our attention was recently brought to a federal New York district court case where a California attorney who opposed the Justice Department’s proposed antitrust settlement with three publishers of e-books filed an amicus brief in the form of a comic strip. … Continue Reading

Do you have a large “to read” pile on your desk containing magazines, journals, and newspapers?  You may also have an online “to read” pile.  Do these piles mentally torture you every day you walk into your office?  Well, I have “the pile of all piles,”and the only reason that I can come up with for not burning it is that I sometimes find interesting appellate articles that I want to share with our readers. … Continue Reading