Earlier this week, the Supreme Court of North Carolina amended the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure, changing the rules for obtaining and filing transcripts on appeal. The amendments are available here. Under the new rules, the transcriptionist must deliver the transcript to all parties to the appeal, eliminating any need for appellees to pay for their own copies of the transcript. The rule changes also shift the burden of filing the transcript in the appellate courts from the transcriptionist to the appellant. Additionally, the amendments make timing changes, extending the time for completing the transcript from 60 to 90 days and the time for serving the proposed record on appeal from 35 to 45 days after completion of the transcript.

These rule changes are accompanied by two new, fillable forms posted on the Supreme Court’s website. Parties should use the new Appellate Division Transcript Contract Form, available here, to order a transcript after filing a notice of appeal. And the Appellate Division Transcript Documentation Form, available here, specifies the service requirements for transcripts relevant to the appeal but obtained before the notice of appeal is filed. Appellate practitioners should become familiar with these forms and be on the lookout for future modifications.

In other news, the appellate rule changes now require transcripts to be electronically filed with the appellate courts absent a court order, and encourage all other components of the appellate record to be filed electronically.

The new rules will apply to cases appealed on or after January 1, 2021.

November 19, 2020/by Appellate