North Carolina Appellate Practice Blog

I wrote a few days ago about some practitioners experiencing problems with overzealous spam filters catching important notices from our appellate courts. To be clear, this is a user-side issue, not a problem with the appellate courts’ software. Nevertheless, our appellate courts’ wonderful IT team has been looking at ways to mitigate these concerns.

Enter

Trigger warning:  this post may cause appellate lawyers to have nightmares.

There has been a spate of technical glitches on the user side lately that caused critical notices from the North Carolina Court of Appeals to end up in “quarantine” in counsel’s e-mail inboxes.  The emails are transmitted from the Court of Appeals to the

If you have a case pending before the North Carolina Supreme Court and haven’t yet received an oral argument notice, your case likely won’t be argued until the fall.

The North Carolina Supreme Court does not have an established formula for when it hears arguments. In past years, the Court has often held the first

I’m often asked by younger lawyers and law students how a person goes about becoming an appellate lawyer. It’s tricky, because most firms and organizations hoard their plum appellate opportunities for their most experienced practitioners. Yet, you can’t become one of those experienced practitioners without first being given those opportunities. Chicken, egg.

Of course, I’m

[CORRECTION, JANUARY 26, 2024:  Attorney Benjamin Kull, who practices in Durham, pointed out to me that the penultimate paragraph of the original post, discussing searches based on the odor of marijuana, was not accurate.  It has been modified.  Thanks and a tip of the hat to Benjamin!]

            The North Carolina Court of Appeals issued

The North Carolina State Bar has announced that six attorneys have passed the grueling examination and have been certified as Specialists in Appellate Practice.  They are:

L Lamar Armstrong, III, Smithfield

Joseph Gilliam, Durham

James Kilbourne, Asheville

Michelle Ligouri, Raleigh

Amie Sivon, Raleigh

Erik Zimmerman, Chapel Hill

            Congratulations to all!

–Bob Edmunds