Facts and Figures for the North Carolina Court System

Twice over the last few weeks, I have been asked to teach public officials about North Carolina’s courts. In my day-to-day work, I spend a lot of time thinking about what our court officials do in particular cases and the law that governs those choices. I less often consider the structure in which they carry out that work. In preparing to talk about that broader topic, I gathered a few thoughts and, more importantly, links to important resources that I thought readers might find of interest. The numbers. You may know that there are seven justices on the North Carolina Supreme Court and fifteen judges on the North Carolina Court of Appeals. But did you know that there are 273 district court judges and 107 superior court judges? And do you know how many magistrates, elected district attorneys, and assistant district attorneys serve the State? You can find these numbers and additional helpful information on the Judicial Branch’s Quick Facts page, available here. The relationship among various courts. When people talk about the court system, they often describe it like a pyramid, with the District Court Division forming the foundation, the Superior Court Division creating the second layer, the Court of Appeals the third, and the North Carolina Supreme Court at the top. But when you examine the routes of appeal for various cases, the relationships between the different divisions become a bit more complicated. This graphic illustrates the relationship between those divisions and charts the routes of appeal from trial [...]