Articles related to clerks of court

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 […]

The end of the year is always a good time to look back and reflect. The close of 2024 offers an opportunity to examine recent legislative developments affecting small claims […]

My prior post identified two key changes to the year’s allowance resulting from Session Law 2023-120: (i) the elimination of the one-year limitation period a surviving spouse and eligible children have to apply for the allowance, and (ii) the elevation of the assignment and payment of the spousal allowance over the child’s allowance. This post will focus on specific changes applicable to the child’s year’s allowance resulting from S.L. 2023-120.

UPDATE #3 (May 29, 2020): For more recent updates, refer to this blog post. UPDATE #2 (April 14, 2020):  The Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court entered two […]

As I noted in a prior blog post, the US Congress restored the federal Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (PTFA) without expiration on June 23, 2018.   The PTFA has been […]

A guardian of the estate for any unemancipated minor may be appointed under G.S. Chapter 35A to receive and administer property on the minor’s behalf.  G.S. 35A-1221; G.S. 35A-1251; G.S. […]

At the end of a hearing, the clerk who is the presiding judicial official orally announces (or “renders”) her decision from the bench in favor of the petitioner seeking relief from the court.  The clerk instructs the attorney for the petitioner to prepare an order with appropriate findings of fact and conclusions of law and to return the order to the court for review within two weeks.  The clerk receives the order from the attorney ten days later.  The clerk reviews the written order, makes a few changes to some findings of fact (remember, in the end it is the court’s order and not the attorney’s order who drafted it), and then signs and files it.  Next to the clerk’s signature on the order is the date the order is signed and the earlier date of the hearing along with the words “nunc pro tunc.”

Does the clerk generally have the authority to enter an order nunc pro tunc?  What is the meaning of this phrase? What is the clerk’s authority to enter an order nunc pro tunc in these specific circumstances?  That’s the subject of today’s post.

READ POST "The Clerk and Nunc Pro Tunc (October 18, 2017)"

Subchapter I of G.S. Chapter 7B (the Juvenile Code) governs child abuse, neglect, dependency, and termination of parental rights cases in North Carolina. The Juvenile Code “sets out a sequential process for abuse, neglect, or dependency cases, wherein each required action or event must occur within a prescribed amount of time after the preceding stage in the case.” In re T.R.P., 360 N.C. 588, 593 (2006). Included in the statutory time frames are the timing for entry of orders. What exactly does the Juvenile Code require? And, why does it matter?

  **UPDATE: Effective July 21, 2017, Session Law 2017-158 expands the clerk’s civil contempt authority. The clerk now has the authority to exercise civil contempt in any instance when the […]

UPDATE: On February, 7, 2017, in an unpublished decision, In re Foreclosure of Iannucci, the NC Court of Appeals upheld the trial court’s reliance on a lost note affidavit as […]