
Court of Appeals Petition Rulings Unmasked
A statute of limitations can end a case before it begins. But which limitations period applies? In its recent opinion in Woody v. Accuquest Hearing Center, LLC, COA21-563 (2022), the North Carolina Court of Appeals tackled this question in a suit involving employment law. The majority, addressing an issue of first impression, found for…
In a series of four opinions issued on July 19, 2022[1], the North Carolina Court of Appeals addressed personal jurisdiction and what constitutes a fundamental public policy of North Carolina. The four cases, arising in three North Carolina counties, involved a single South Carolina auto finance company and almost twenty different plaintiffs. Each…
For years, tension has existed between federal and state criminal prosecutors over forfeitures. Criminal forfeitures result from the seizure (and, if necessary, the sale) of contraband such as cash from illegal activities or illegally obtained merchandise. When the forfeiture is conducted by a state agency, the school system receives the resulting funds, but when the…
Five months ago, the Supreme Court of North Carolina installed a new Clerk of Court. Want to get to know Grant Buckner better? The NCBA has uploaded a recent interview with Grant entitled “Breakfast with Buckner.”
For those accustomed to calling the clerk to discuss appellate-rules compliance, the good news is that Grant intends…
After three years of service as the Dean of Regent University Law School in Virginia, former North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Martin is coming home. High Point University announced today that the Chief will serve as the founding dean of its new law school, which could open as early as 2024.
Our…
On May 3, 2022, the North Carolina Court of Appeals issued a large batch of opinions. By my count, twenty-two were published and thirty were unpublished. While history may prove me wrong, none of the published opinions appeared to me to be groundbreaking. Several, however, had interesting issues, facts, or analysis, so once again I’ll…
Hopefully all of our readers have seen the announcements and registered already, but if not: there are three appellate-related events before the end of the month.
First, there is an appellate insights event on Thursday, April 21st at noon with Fourth Circuit Judge Heytens. More information can be found here.
Second, the Appellate Practice…
Back in November, I wrote about the possibility of a fee award being immediately appealable if the amount in question is significant enough. In the latest batch of opinions from the Court of Appeals, that issue reared its head again.
In Preston v. Preston, the trial court was bothered by inconsistent allegations in the…
If you’ve regularly read my blog posts here over the past few years (in other words, if you are my mom), you will know that I find Fourth Circuit published denials of petitions for rehearing to be of particular interest. Well, another one came out today. Published Denial here.
This particular denial of rehearing…