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In my last post, I dissected the form Judgment for Actions to Recover Money or Personal Property, AOC-CVM-400. This post will focus on AOC-CVM-401, Judgment in Action for Summary Ejectment, […]
The North Carolina General Assembly recently addressed family law issues in several pieces of legislation. This post addresses legislation effective on or before October 1, 2025. Changes effective on later […]
The 2024 Annual Report issued by the North Carolina Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (DJJDP) includes descriptive information related to the processing of cases in the juvenile justice system and the use of facilities that serve juveniles. Highlights include a notable increase in motor vehicle-related property offenses and increased demand for capacity in juvenile detention facilities. This post explores these highlights. All the data included below comes from the 2024 Annual Report unless otherwise noted.
Child welfare records maintained by a department of social services (DSS) contain sensitive information that parties in various proceedings are often interested in seeing. A complex web of state and federal law governs the disclosure of these records – more than I can cover here. For purposes of this post, it’s sufficient to know that G.S. 108A-80 is a broadly applicable confidentiality statute that applies to DSS and covers client information generally. Absent limited statutory exceptions, G.S. 108A-80(a) prohibits disclosure of information related to individuals who apply for or receive public assistance or social services, including child welfare services.
Child welfare information is also subject to an additional set of confidentiality restrictions under Chapter 7B of the North Carolina General Statutes. For example, G.S. 7B-302 makes information that is obtained by DSS related to a juvenile’s alleged abuse, neglect, or dependency (A/N/D) confidential. Similarly, G.S. 7B-2901(b) requires DSS to maintain confidential records of juveniles it has in its custody. Both statutes provide exceptions to the confidentiality requirement.
This post explores how the exceptions in G.S. 7B-302 and 7B-2901(b) apply when a party—either in a North Carolina civil case where DSS is not a party or in a criminal or delinquency matter—wants DSS child welfare records about someone other than themselves. Note that in this post I use the term ‘DSS records’ to refer to child welfare records maintained by DSS, including those from juvenile A/N/D proceedings.
On January 1, 2026, a new kind of will can be offered for probate in North Carolina. Session Law 2025-33, Part VIII adds a new Article 11 to Chapter 31 […]
This is my third post discussing S.L. 2025-16, the Fostering Care in NC Act. The various sections of this significant 32-page session law have different effective dates: June 26, 2025, October 1, 2025, December 1, 2025, and April 1, 2026. This post discusses two significant changes to child welfare law that are effective October 1st:
Because the changes made in S.L. 2025-16 and some other shorter session laws addressing child welfare are so numerous, my colleague, Kristi Nickodem, and I made a 1.5 hour on-demand webinar discussing these changes. It is free of charge and can be viewed at any time. There are no continuing education credit hours available. You can view the webinar at https://vimeo.com/1121169767. The end of this post has a list of all the posts addressing the legislative changes discussed in the webinar.
On November 1, 2025, legislative changes to North Carolina adult protective services (APS) law take effect pursuant to Session Law 2025-27, Part V. There are three primary changes reflected in […]
In my last blog post about the confidentiality of adult protective services (APS) information, I described a five-step framework for determining when a department of social services (DSS) may release […]
The most recent Court of Appeals delinquency-related decision, In the Matter of D.H., ___ N.C.App. ___ (August 20, 2025), is one of a very few opinions that addresses a trial court’s order placing a juvenile in the custody of a department of social services (DSS custody) through a delinquency disposition. This area of law can be very confusing for practitioners. At its core, the juvenile is in DSS custody without a petition alleging abuse, neglect, or dependency; instead, there is a petition alleging the juvenile is delinquent. The possibility of DSS custody is also available in undisciplined juvenile proceedings. This blog provides a brief overview of when the court can issue such an order in a delinquency or undisciplined case and explains why simultaneous nonsecure and secure custody orders and dispositional orders that include both DSS custody and commitment to a Youth Development Center (YDC) are a legal impossibility.
House Bill 620, chaptered as S.L. 2025-54, enacted several changes affecting judicial authority and administration that may be of interest to practitioners generally. This post will review the legislation’s provisions […]