**This post was written by SOG faculty member Jeff Welty (although I made a few very minor edits) and posted on the NC Criminal Law Blog on April 30, 2019.
A few weeks ago, WRAL reported that a courtroom deputy and district court judge told a woman waiting in district court that she needed to remove her child from the courtroom. According to the report, the judge and deputy told the woman that no children under 12 were allowed in the courtroom.
What is a gatekeeper order? Continue Reading
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.