Rule 5 Service: What Practitioners Need to Know by Joseph Laizure

North Carolina has launched eCourts in all 100 counties and the North Carolina Business Court. Related changes to the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure and General Rules of Practice for the Superior and District Courts (“General Rules of Practice”) now require electronic filing and service of documents in civil litigation statewide. This post identifies what litigants need to know about service.

Rule 5 basics

After service of the summons and complaint,[1] North Carolina Rule of Civil Procedure 5 governs service of “[e]very order … pleading … paper relating to discovery required to be served … written motion other than one which may be heard ex parte, and every written notice, appearance, demand, offer of judgment and similar paper” in a civil lawsuit. G.S. 1A-1, Rule 5(a) (2025). While the formality of service of process under Rule 4 ensures that litigants know that they have been sued (see this post for more on that), Rule 5 prescribes less formal procedures for ensuring that litigants have notice of each step in the litigation. The North Carolina Court of Appeals has said that “[i]t is the purpose of the Rule that every party be given due process and a reasonable opportunity to be heard.” Macon v. Edinger, 49 N.C. App. 624, 629 (1980), rev’d on other grounds, 303 N.C. 274 (1981). Typically every document listed in Rule 5(a) will be served on all parties except those against whom default has been entered for failure to appear. G.S. 1A-1, Rule 5(a). See this post for more on entry of default.

Who Must Be Served Under Rule 5

If a party is represented by an attorney, a litigant must serve documents on that party’s attorney of record unless the court orders otherwise. G.S. 1A-1, Rule 5(b). If a party is unrepresented, the party must be served. Id. Service on attorneys using eCourts has changed following amendments in recent years to the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure and General Rules of Practice. See, e.g., S.L. 2020-46 § 2 (allowing for e-filing); S.L. 2023-103 § 12(a) (allowing for electronic certificates of service); S.L. 2025-25 § 29(1) (normalizing references to “email” over other similar terms). Rule of Civil Procedure 5(b) states that “[s]ervice is made under this subsection if performed on an attorney through the court’s electronic filing or case management system at an email address of record with the court.” G.S. 1A-1, Rule 5(b). Let’s take a closer look at the components of this rule. The court’s electronic filing system is File & Serve, and attorneys are required use it to “file pleadings and other documents electronically.” Gen. R. Prac. Super. & Dist. Ct. 5(b)(2) (2025). General Rule of Practice 5(d) goes on to state that service is made according to the General Statutes, which means Rule of Civil Procedure 5 unless another rule applies. The phrase “email address of record with the court” refers to a list maintained by the North Carolina State Bar. While the State Bar has long maintained a directory of members entitled State Bar Contact Information, in recent years the General Assembly has directed members to provide the State Bar with contact information for service of court papers under Rule of Civil Procedure 5. G.S. 84-39; see also S.L. 2023-103 § 12(b). As a result, the State Bar now maintains another list entitled Court Service Information. See this press release for details. Note that eCourts imports the Court Service Information list from the State Bar weekly. If members take no action, their mailing address, email address, and phone numbers on both the State Bar Contact Information and Court Service Information lists will be the same. Members may log in to the Member Portal on the State Bar’s website to change their information on either list. See this guide for more. The Court Service Information list is especially important because under both the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure and General Rules of Practice, attorneys may be served through File & Serve at the email address on that list. This is a subtle change to the way that the Rules of Civil Procedure work. In the past attorneys could agree to service by email by filing “an email address of record with the court in the case.” G.S. 1A-1, Rule 5(b)(1)a. Even though that language still exists in the rule, it means something different now that each attorney’s email address of record exists in a central file with the State Bar. Attorneys must expect to be served through File & Serve at their email address of record even without affirmative consent in every case in which they have appeared. One more point about how this works: in File & Serve, attorneys may add themselves as service contacts to individual cases. Even if they do not, attorneys representing other parties may add them and add additional email addresses for sending courtesy copies. Litigators need to know that they may be served with court documents through File & Serve whether they have added themselves as a service contact or not. This feature also diminishes uncertainty for attorneys who are trying to serve opposing counsel when opposing counsel have not added themselves as service contacts in a particular case.

Beyond pleadings and motions

For many litigators in the state, serving pleadings and motions through File & Serve has become routine. Still, I have received a number of questions about whether attorneys must serve discovery using File & Serve or, conversely, whether they can object to the manner of service if opposing counsel fails to serve discovery using File & Serve. My sense is that these questions spring from the varying levels of formality with which litigators have approached service of discovery requests and responses, with some using email for service and others using U.S. mail or a private delivery company and sending courtesy copies by email. Rule 5(b) does not provide a different procedure for discovery requests and responses than for motions and notices. G.S. 1A-1, Rule 5(b). In other words, the Rules of Civil Procedure state that litigators must serve discovery through File & Serve. Importantly, this software allows electronic service without e-filing and without adding to the public court record. Alternate methods of service are allowed only when eCourts is not available under the same rule. As in the pre-eCourts era, a certificate of service must accompany every document other than those served under Rule 4. G.S. 1A-1, Rule 5(b1). File & Serve will generate an automated certificate of service, which a litigant can then file with the court to satisfy this requirement. Id. Under North Carolina’s system, the automatic generation of the certificate of service alone is not sufficient to prove service—that automated certificate of service must then be “filed in the case.” Id. Nothing in the rule prevents attorneys from drafting their own certificates of service and filing them. For more details on certificates of service in eCourts, see Joseph Kyzer, Rule 5 Service in the Digital Age, N.C. State Bar Journal, Winter 2025.

Service when eCourts Not available

It is not always possible to use File & Serve, particularly when one or more parties are self-represented. Unlike service on an attorney, serving a self-represented party is only allowed “if the party has consented to receive service through the court’s electronic filing or case management system and a copy of the consent is filed with the court by any party.” G.S. 1A-1, Rule 5(b). Self-represented parties are “encouraged to file pleadings and other documents electronically but are not required to do so.” Gen. R. Prac. Super. & Dist. Ct. 5(b)(2). In the event of an outage, disaster, or other emergency making eCourts unavailable, attorneys may serve other attorneys by pre-eCourts methods: personal delivery, fax, mail, or email at “an email address of record with the court in the case.” G.S. 1A-1, Rule 5(b)(1)a. This brings me back to my most important point for attorneys acclimating to eCourts: if you are a member of the North Carolina State Bar, you already have an email address of record with the court under G.S. 84-39. You should expect to receive service at that email address. If you are a practitioner and do not know which email address appears on the Court Service Information list, now is a good time to check. [1] See G.S. 1A-1, Rule 4.