Much ink has been spilled exploring the porous jurisdictional border between the trial division and the appellate division. A recent opinion from the Court of Appeals addresses this issue again.
State v. Johnson, No....more
Jurisdiction is a foundation of what we do as trial and appellate practitioners. While a litigant can waive lack of personal jurisdiction, lack of subject matter jurisdiction is death for a case. In its opinions issued...more
An appellate court will usually affirm or find no error in a trial court action if the result is deemed correct, even if the trial court’s rationale isn’t. Both State and Federal courts seem to call on this doctrine with...more
I suspect that every reader of this blog nurses a fear of making a jurisdictional error that kills the client’s appeal. For North Carolina practitioners, three recent Court of Appeals cases give guidance to help alleviate...more