Archive

• Child Custody Jurisdiction: communication between courts in different states

  This entry was contributed by Cheryl Howell on May 7, 2025 at 9:00 am and is filed under Family Law.

  The provisions in the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (the UCCJEA), N.C. Gen Stat., Chapter 50A, define a trial court’s subject matter jurisdiction to enter a child custody determination. This means that if the requirements of the Act are not followed, a custody determination will be void ab initio.

  The UCCJEA allows communication between courts in different states when a judge determines communication is necessary for a court to determine whether and how it can exercise jurisdiction. The Act requires communication between courts in different states in two specific circumstances, and the Act sets out the procedure to be followed whenever a court communicates with a court in another state.

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• “Raise the Age” Is Now the Law in North Carolina

  This entry was contributed by LaToya Powell on August 30, 2017 at 10:40 am and is filed under Juvenile Justice.

  North Carolina is no longer the only state in the U.S. that automatically prosecutes juveniles as adults beginning at age 16. In June, the General Assembly ended a century long practice of prosecuting teens as adults by enacting the Juvenile Justice Reinvestment Act as part of the 2017 state budget, which raised the age of criminal responsibility to 18. As a result, most 16 and 17-year-olds will be prosecuted in juvenile court beginning December 1, 2019. There are, however, some exceptions. Here’s what you should know about this historic reform. Continue Reading

• The Little Engine that Could: Article 27A, G.S. Chapter 1

  This entry was contributed by Meredith Smith on April 21, 2017 at 4:22 pm and is filed under Clerks of Superior Court, Judicial Authority.

  In my last post, I wrote about the office of the clerk of superior court and the clerk’s judicial authority.  I provided a basic framework for this authority and noted that that the clerk’s non-criminal authority falls into three main categories:

  1. estates and trusts,
  2. civil, and
  3. special proceedings.

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• Preparing for the Effective Date: UAGPPJA Resources

  This entry was contributed by Meredith Smith on November 30, 2016 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Guardianship, Jurisdiction.

  Tomorrow, December 1, 2016, G.S. Chapter 35B goes into effect in North Carolina.  The law incorporates provisions of the Uniform Adult Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Jurisdiction Act (UAGPPJA). As I noted in this earlier post, it applies to all new incompetency and adult guardianship proceedings filed on or after December 1st and requires the court to ensure jurisdiction is proper under Chapter 35B before proceeding with the case.  Keep in mind that if a case is already pending as of December 1st, the court is not required to apply the G.S. Chapter 35B analysis related to jurisdiction for initial filings, even if the hearing takes place after December 1st.

  UAGPPJA, as adopted in G.S. Chapter 35B, also provides a new mechanism for transferring existing adult guardianship cases to and from North Carolina and for registering out of state guardianship orders in North Carolina.  The transfer and registration provisions apply as of December 1, 2016 to all cases in NC, regardless of whether they were filed before, on, or after that date.

  The text of G.S. Chapter 35B is now available on the N.C. General Assembly’s website.  Note the statutes were renumbered when they were codified.  Therefore, the statutory references in the session law, S.L. 2016-72, are no longer correct.  In addition to the primary law, I wanted to use this post to identify some other resources now available to assist with the implementation of UAGPPJA in N.C. Continue Reading

• Untimely Filed Juvenile Petitions – What’s the Remedy?

  This entry was contributed by LaToya Powell on November 25, 2015 at 6:22 am and is filed under Juvenile Justice.

  Under G.S. 7B-1703(b), a juvenile court counselor (JCC) has “15 days after the complaint is received” to file the complaint as a juvenile petition, or a maximum of 30 days, if the chief court counselor has granted a 15-day extension. I’m often asked whether an untimely filed petition must be dismissed; and if so, whether the State is precluded from filing another petition for the same offense. There are two published appellate cases addressing these issues; In re D.S., 364 N.C. 184 (2010), and In re J.A.G., 206 N.C. App. 318 (2010). Here’s what they say.

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