North Carolina Judicial System. PPT created from resources found at www.civics.org (the NC Civics Education Consortium)

1. NC Judicial System

2. How does the NC Judicial System
operate?
 The NC Constitution outlines
our Judicial Power in Article IV.
 North Carolina runs a statewide
court system, so while some
employees of the court may be
elected in their local
jurisdictions, they are all state
employees.
 The court system is also state
funded, and the state incurs all
expenses except for facilities
and security.

3. General Court of Justice
The General Court of Justice contains three parts: an
Appellate Division, a Superior Court Division, and a District
Court Division.

4.  The Appellate Division is made
up of the Supreme Court and the
Court of Appeals.

5. The Supreme Court has a Chief Justice
and six associate justices.
1. The Court hears cases appealed from the Court of
Appeals and some cases that bypass the Court of
Appeals, such as death sentence cases, which
must be heard by the Supreme Court.
2. Parties must petition the Supreme Court to hear
their case, and in most cases, the Supreme Court
can decide whether or not it will hear the case. The
exceptions to this rule are death sentence cases,
Utilities Commission cases, and Court of Appeals
decisions with one dissent, all of which are
automatically heard by the Supreme Court.
3. The role of the Supreme Court is to determine legal
error or interpretation of the law; the Court does not
hear cases to determine fact.
4. The Supreme Court does not have a jury.
5. Supreme Court Judges are elected to eight-year
terms.

6. The Court of Appeals has 15 judges who
sit in rotating panels of three.
 This Court hears cases appealed
from Superior and District Courts
and decides cases on questions of
law ranging from parking tickets to
murder cases.
 The Court of Appeals mostly
reviews matters decided by trial
courts to determine if there are
legal errors in the trial; it does not
have a jury.
 Court of Appeals Judges are
elected to eight-year terms.

7. Superior Court
 The Superior Court is a Trial Court; it is currently
divided into eight divisions and 46 judicial districts,
and elections of one or more Superior Court
Judges are held in each district.
 Every six months, Superior Court Judges rotate
among the districts in their division, i.e., they move
to a new district.
 The Superior Court tries “felony criminal cases, civil
cases involving more than $10,000, and
misdemeanor and infraction appeals from district
court.”
 The Superior Court does employ a jury in criminal
cases.
 Superior Court Judges are elected to eight-year
terms.

8. District Courts
 The District Court is a Trial Court; it is
currently divided into 41 districts, and
elections of one or more District Court
Judges are held in each district.
 District Courts are divided into four
categories: criminal, civil, juvenile, and
magistrate.
 District Courts hear criminal cases involving
misdemeanors and infractions; criminal
cases are the most common of the four
categories and are heard without a jury.
 District Courts hear civil cases involving less
than $10,000.
 District judges are elected to four-year terms.

9. Family Court is part of the District
Courts
 Family Court is a special kind of civil court.
 Family Courts hear all cases involving
juvenile delinquency, neglect and abuse,
termination of parental rights, adoption,
domestic violence, custody, divorce, and
child support, among other family-related
matters.
 In these courts, children sixteen years
and younger who are considered
delinquents are designated as juveniles,
and children who are eighteen years and
younger who are considered
“undisciplined, neglected, or abused” are
designated as juveniles.
 Mediation is often used in Family Court

10. Clerks of Court
 Clerks of Court are elected in every county in
North Carolina and are responsible for all
clerical and record-keeping functions of the
Superior and District Courts.
 The Clerk also acts as a Probate Judge,
which means he/she deals with wills and
estates; decides guardianship for minors;
and determines incompetence.
 Clerks have the power to issues arrest and
search warrants and to accept guilty pleas
and payments for minor offenses.
 Clerks are elected in their county to four-year
terms.

11. Magistrates
 Magistrates are judicial officials
who work at the District Court
level to handle certain criminal
and civil cases. They do not
usually conduct trials, but they
do handle many preliminary
matters in criminal cases. They
are not judges, even though
they do possess the limited
judicial powers listed on the
next slide.

12. Powers of Magistrates
 In criminal cases, magistrates
issue warrants and set bail.
 Magistrates also accept guilty
pleas and payments of fines for
traffic violations and minor
misdemeanors.
 Magistrates are the only judicial
officials who can perform marriage
ceremonies.
 Magistrates are appointed by the
Senior Resident Superior Court
Judge; their terms are initially two-
years, followed by four-year terms.

13. Jurors  Jurors are citizens who listen to cases and
determine a person’s right to property, right
to freedom, or, in capital cases, right to life.
 To be eligible to serve as a juror in North
Carolina, one must fulfill the following
requirements:
 Citizen of the state and a resident of the
county
 18 or older (no upper age limit)
 Able to speak and to understand the
English language
 Physically and mentally competent
 No felony conviction
 Generated lists of jurors come from voter
registration lists and drivers’ license lists.