The Petition Tracker has been updated with the Supreme Court’s most recent allowed petitions for discretionary review. Although there were some special orders, the Court only allowed two petitions outright.
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Supreme Court Adopts Universal Citation Format
Back in June, the Supreme Court of North Carolina sought feedback on a potential change to the citation format for North Carolina appellate court opinions. This week, the Court has
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Can You Appeal from a Nullity?
The trial judge who presides over a hearing or trial is supposed to, and usually does, sign the resulting written order. But what happens if that normal process is not
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Can an Appellate Judge’s Vote Count After Death or Retirement?
Suppose an appellate judge casts the deciding vote in a case, creating a majority in support of the lead opinion. Before the opinion is released, however, the judge retires or
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Supreme Court Clarifies Special Pleading Requirement in Medical-Malpractice Actions
If you have ever litigated a medical-malpractice case, you likely know all about Rule 9(j). Rule 9—the repository of the exceptions to our “notice-pleading regime”—requires a med-mal plaintiff (who isn’t
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Could North Carolina Finally Adopt Federal Standing Requirements?
It has long been harder for a plaintiff to show standing in federal court than in North Carolina’s state courts. A juicy 2-1 decision from the North Carolina Court of
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Statutory Construction: The Saga Continues
Statutory construction continues to be an important issue to the Supreme Court of North Carolina.
Consider this statute: “Only a county director of social services or the director’s authorized representative
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Disagreement in the Supreme Court of North Carolina: How to Interpret a Statute
Our State Supreme Court issues a lot of unanimous opinions. But this month’s batch of opinions contained two interesting examples of an area in which the justices may disagree: statutory
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Job Posting for Supreme Court Clerk
As we discussed previously, the Supreme Court finds itself in need of a new clerk. Are you interested in applying? Do you know someone who might be? Here is
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By the Numbers: 2016 Outcomes in Supreme Court Decisions
North Carolina’s appellate statistician, Kenzie Rakes, has more numbers for us. Kenzie’s pie charts break down the outcomes from last year’s appeals to the Supreme Court. Which disposition was used
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