Most practitioners are likely happy to have limited familiarity with Rule 4(a)(6) of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. The Rule allows the district court, in its discretion, to reopen for 14 days a party’s time to...more
In North Carolina appellate practice, it is often generally said that an interlocutory order affecting a substantial right is immediately appealable. But as the Court of Appeals reiterated in an opinion issued this week,...more
Two weeks ago I blogged on the unique situation facing the Fourth Circuit in the high-profile Dylann Roof case after all of the judges of the Court recused themselves from hearing his appeal. Since that post, there have been...more
Back in January I blogged about how frequently, and in what types of cases, the Fourth Circuit was issuing published opinions after submission on briefs–a new phenomenon in the Circuit made possible only by the...more
A Fourth Circuit published opinion from earlier this week revealed an interesting panel composition issue, as the panel that heard the oral argument in the appeal was slightly different from the panel that ultimately issued...more
Last week I blogged about the Fourth Circuit’s recent published opinions that, due to the pandemic-prompted suspension of Local Rule 36(a), did not have the usual oral argument. The research for that post revealed that...more
North Carolina General Statute § 7A-30(2) allows for an appeal as of right to the Supreme Court of North Carolina from “any decision of the Court of Appeals rendered in a case…in which there is a dissent.” Seems pretty...more
Last week, the Court of Appeals returned to a general question that this blog has addressed before: When is a Notice of Appeal Filing Deadline or Requirement Jurisdictional? In this instance, the specific issue was whether...more
A while back, Justice Edmunds wrote a post that did a deep dive into what it means for the state’s jurisprudence when a case is “affirmed without precedential value.” Matt followed that up with discussion of a Business Court...more
Back in March, the Court of Appeals in Ramsey v. Ramsey dismissed a party’s appeal for cumulative non-jurisdictional violations that the Court described as “gross and substantial noncompliance with the North Carolina Rules of...more
Last week I blogged about an en banc opinion from the Fourth Circuit for which authorship of the majority opinion was attributed to two judges. This week from the Fourth Circuit came another two judge oddity-a panel opinion...more
Is there institutional disharmony in the Fourth Circuit? That’s the question that one judge suggested, in a concurring opinion, that lawyers and judges might be asking after an en banc opinion released on Tuesday. In...more
A while back I wrote about the collateral order doctrine as discussed by the Fourth Circuit in Williams v. Strickland. Williams involved an alleged excessive force claim against a law enforcement officer and an...more
About a year ago, we blogged on Zloop v. Parker Poe, in which the North Carolina Business Court dismissed an appeal because the notice of appeal was directed to the North Carolina Court of Appeals instead of the Supreme Court...more
The federal corollary to the oft-blogged about “substantial right doctrine” in the North Carolina appellate courts is the “collateral order doctrine.” As is the case under North Carolina law, the jurisdiction of the United...more
There is perhaps no topic more frequently covered on this blog than that of the appeal of an interlocutory order and the substantial rights that will permit such an appeal to be immediately reviewed by the appellate court. ...more