NCJ Number
77494
Date Published
1981
Length
160 pages
Annotation
Activities of North Carolina's judicial department for the fiscal year July 1, 1979 through June 30, 1980 are presented in narrative and statistical form; court organization, resources, and caseload data are emphasized.
Abstract
During the fiscal year the workload of North Carolina's courts increased substantially at both the appellate and trial court levels. Filings in the State supreme court increased by 29 percent to 243 cases compared with 188 cases filed the previous year. In the court of appeals, filings rose to 1,204 cases, an increase of 2.5 percent over 1978. There was a corresponding rise in case dispositions. In the superior courts, filings of both civil and criminal cases increased by 9.1 percent to a total of 74,899 cases. However, the increase in cases filed in North Carolina's district courts was minor during this report period; the number of cases filed totaled 1,458,647. Filings of district court civil cases have more than doubled since 1972, but filings in traffic cases have continued to decline. With regard to legislative activity relevant to the court system, the 1979 General Assembly voted to extend the State's public defender system into the third judicial district effective January 1, 1981. The Fair Sentencing Act of 1979 was amended during 1980. Also, modifications of the 2-year budget for 1979 through 1981 provided additional appropriations for representation of indigents, additional assistant district attorney positions in three districts, and reimbursement for superior court judges' travel costs. Extensive tables and graphs illustrate the data. (Author abstract modified)