Chief Justice Cheri Beasley’s Announcement Regarding COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
By Family Law Section members, please make note of Chief Justice Beasley’s announcement today regarding the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) impact on court operations, which goes into effect on Monday, March 16. You can access her announcement here:
Although courthouses will remain open, this will have a direct impact on many of us practicing in the North Carolina Court System because all court proceedings will be rescheduled for at least 30 days, with some exceptions.
Those exceptions include cases where:
- the proceeding will be conducted remotely;
- the proceeding is necessary to preserve the right to due process of law (e.g., a first appearance or bond hearing, the appointment of counsel for an indigent defendant, a probation hearing, a probable cause hearing, etc.);
- the proceeding is for the purpose of obtaining emergency relief (e.g., a domestic violence protection order, temporary restraining order, juvenile custody order, judicial consent to juvenile medical treatment order, civil commitment order, etc.); or
- the senior resident superior court judge, chief business court judge, or chief district court judge determines that the proceeding can be conducted under conditions that protect the health and safety of all participants.
For more details and updated information, visit the North Carolina Judicial Branch website.