Certification Program FAQ's

The NC Judicial College at the School offers a certification program for magistrates across the state to acknowledge and document the commitment and accomplishments of magistrates who strive toward excellence by pursuing a focused course of study in a specific content area. To be certified, magistrates must complete a five‐component educational requirement in either or both of two tracks: 1) civil law and 2) criminal law.

Many experienced magistrates have already completed most of the coursework required for certification. In addition to recognizing their work, we hope this program will encourage less experienced and new magistrates to actively seek out additional training courses. We also hope that the identification of a specific course of study will help chief district court judges, clerks of court, and chief magistrates in deciding how to best support magistrates in their quest for training. Finally, we hope supervising authorities will find it useful to have this ready means of identifying magistrates who have sought out and completed more advanced training.

Magistrates may begin the journey at any point in their careers, and they may take as long as they choose to conclude that journey. Participation in the certification program is entirely optional, and no application or declaration of interest is required.

Each year in the fall, the Judicial College will announce the dates for an eight‐week window during which magistrates may file their online requests for certification. This request must be accompanied by written documentation from the AOC Learning Management Center verifying completion of the required training events. After the end of this period, the Judicial College will publish a list of the newly certified magistrates. Each magistrate will receive a certificate attesting to that magistrate’s successful completion of an advanced course of study in either (or both!) civil or criminal law.

• Judicial Decision-Making
  

• Advanced Criminal Procedure

• Presiding Over DWI Cases: What Magistrates and District Court Judges Need to Know (previously titled DWI and Related Offenses)

• Domestic Violence for Magistrates
  

• One One-Day Criminal Law Seminar (previously titled Regional One-Day Seminars for Magistrates: Criminal Law) or six hours of criminal law sessions at the Magistrates' Fall and/or Spring Conferences.
  

NOTE: Students will receive credit for successful completion of the required courses regardless of whether the course was offered remotely or in‐person. Credit toward certification is not available, however, for viewing of recordings of online training after the date that they were offered live. Credit towards certification is also not available for criminal law sessions offered during Basic School for Magistrates.

• Judicial Decision-Making
  

• Introduction to Small Claims 
  

• Special Topic Seminar in Small Claims (previously titled Introduction to Small Claims II, Landlord-Tenant Law, or Advanced Small Claims)

• One One-Day Civil Law Seminar (previously titled Regional One-Day Seminars for Magistrates: Small Claims) or six hours of small claims, involuntary committement, or domestic violence protective order sessions at the Magistrates' Fall and/or Spring Conferences
  

• Either Involuntary Commitment for Magistrates or Domestic Violence for Magistrates
  

NOTE: Students will receive credit for successful completion of the required courses regardless of whether the course was offered remotely or in‐person. Credit toward certification is not available, however, for viewing of recordings of online training after the date that they were offered live. Credit towards certification is also not available for civil law sessions offered during Basic School for Magistrates.

Magistrates who attended past training events required for certification may request and will receive credit for that attendance, provided that specific documentation of that attendance is available from the AOC. Because AOC transcripts only recently included detail about specific sessions attended at conferences, conference sessions attended prior to 2022 may not be eligible for credit. 

Some courses offered by the School of Government have had different names over the years. Please use this chart to help you identify courses for requirements where course names might have changed.