Recent Rule Amendments
The Supreme Court of North Carolina amended the N.C. Rules of Appellate Procedure (the "Rules") three times in the last several years via its 17 November 2020 Order (the "November 2020 Amendments"), its 13 October 2021 Order (the "October 2021 Amendments"), and its 1 March 2023 Order (the "March 2023 Amendments"). The relevant portions of these recent Rule Amendments are reflected in this version of the Style Manual.
To ensure that you are always referencing the current and official version of the N.C. Rules of Appellate Procedure, refer to the "North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure" page of the nccourts.gov website. This website also identifies any recent Supreme Court Orders, amending the Rules.
The November 2020 Amendments apply to matters where the Notice of Appeal was filed on or after 1 January 2021, the October 2021 Amendments apply to all matters that were appealed on or after 1 January 2022, and the March 2023 Amendments apply to all matters that were appealed on or after 13 February 2023. Stated differently:
->If your matter was appealed anytime in or after 1 January 2021, then there's a whole new process for ordering and filing lower-court transcripts on appeal. Start by reviewing Section II of this Style Manual, which summarizes the bulk of what you need to know about this new transcript process. You should then review the 17 November 2020 Order, which reflects all of the redline edits of the November 2020 Amendments.
->If your matter was appealed on or after 1 January 2022, then you also need to understand the new transcript process (described above), which was tweaked again by the October 2021 Amendments. Plus you should spend extra time reviewing the 13 October 2021 Order, which reflects all of the redline edits of the October 2021 Amendments. The October 2021 Amendments have updated a lot, but here's a quick list of the main topics addressed by the October 2021 Amendments:
o Overhauled Rules regarding Rule 9(d) Exhibits
o Defined and distinguished "printed record" versus "record on appeal"
o E-filing is mandatory now if a party is represented by counsel
o Time for filing record on appeal
o Before filing an appellate motion, all represented parties must certify that they made a "good-faith effort" to notify all other parties of their motion and attempted to obtain their consent
o Virtual oral argument is available, upon request