Generally, you can ask a judge to change her mind, but you can’t ask her to change a different judge’s mind. For example, at the trial-court level, a judge can
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The Panel of Theseus
North Carolina Court of Appeals Offers Free Appellate CLE Courses
Desperately searching for COVID-safe CLE hours? The North Carolina Court of Appeals is offering appellate continuing legal education courses until the end of February 2021. According to the Court’s press
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No Appellate Judicial Primaries in 2020; Our Voter-Information Guide Is Ready
It continues to amaze me how difficult it is for the public to access basic information about the upcoming elections for open seats on the Supreme Court of North Carolina
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Taking Care of Business (Part I): Rule 3.1 No-Merit Briefs Warrant (At Least Some Form of) Appellate Review
On Friday, the Supreme Court displayed how busy it has been this summer by releasing 17 authored opinions. Justice Per Curiam (who is fond of affirming/reversing “for the reasons
Continue Reading Taking Care of Business (Part I): Rule 3.1 No-Merit Briefs Warrant (At Least Some Form of) Appellate Review
What Type of Review Is Triggered by a “No-Merit” Brief?
At first blush, it might not seem surprising that the Court of Appeals would dismiss an appeal if “[n]o issues have been argued or preserved for review.” But what is
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Are These Rhetorical Questions?
Tuesday’s batch of opinions from the Court of Appeals included several helpful reminders. None of these is especially earth-shattering, but the opinions do answer some questions that may be forgotten
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Supreme Court Reverses Court of Appeals Application of Appellate Rule 2
Last Friday was a blockbuster appellate day for the Supreme Court of North Carolina. Not only did it effectively declare an appellate jurisdiction statute unconstitutional (see Matt’s blog post
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More Jurisdictional Changes: Could Juvenile Cases Be Next?
Last week, we wrote about a bill that was introduced in the legislature that would shrink the Court of Appeals to 12 judges while tweaking the jurisdiction of the Supreme
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A Lesson in Helping Verbs: When You May, Might, or Must Appeal
In its final set of opinions from 2016, the North Carolina Court of Appeals provided some helpful reminders for appellate practitioners.
1. Unless some other exception applies, you may appeal
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Bill Would Give Court of Appeals En Banc Jurisdiction and Make Appellate Races Partisan Again; Eliminate Direct Appeal To Supreme Court From Orders Declaring Law Facially Invalid
A couple of years ago, the North Carolina Supreme Court found itself with a heftier docket, thanks to new laws like the Business Court Modernization Act that sent certain appeals
Continue Reading Bill Would Give Court of Appeals En Banc Jurisdiction and Make Appellate Races Partisan Again; Eliminate Direct Appeal To Supreme Court From Orders Declaring Law Facially Invalid