The North Carolina Court of Appeals (in case citation, N.C. Ct. App.) is the only intermediate appellate court in the state of North Carolina. It is composed of fifteen members who sit in rotating panels of three. The Court of Appeals was created by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1967 after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 1965 which "authorized the creation of an intermediate court of appeals to relieve pressure on the North Carolina Supreme Court."
Judges serve eight-year terms and are elected in statewide elections. The General Assembly made Court of Appeals elections non-partisan starting with the 2004 elections, but later made them partisan again after the 2016 elections.
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History
The creation of a Court of Appeals in North Carolina was first authorized by a constitutional amendment in 1965, but did not occur until a statute was made effective on January 1, 1967. It initially had six judges, but in 1969 was expanded to nine. The court was expanded in 1977 to 12 judges and in 2000 to 15.
Function
The Court of Appeals, along with the Supreme Court, constitute the Appellate Division within North Carolina's unified court system, the General Court of Justice. Its structure is determined by statute.
The court comprises 15 members, with one designated as a chief judge by the chief justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. Judges of the court are elected in statewide races to serve eight-year terms. Judges of the court convene in three member panels to hear cases. Rulings of one panel are binding upon other panels of the court and lower courts and can only be overruled by the Supreme Court. The panels are convened in such a manner that all judges are rotated to hear an equal number of cases with each of their colleagues. There is no mechanism by which the judges can be empaneled en banc.
Former judges
A partial list of former judges is listed below: