New Emergency Orders Extend Deadlines in Criminal Cases

Chief Justice Cheri Beasley entered three emergency orders on Saturday affecting court operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two of the orders impact criminal cases. One extends the deadline for filing notices of appeal. The other extends the authorization for remote proceedings in Emergency Directive 3 and renews and modifies the provisions of Emergency Directive 7, which provides additional time to pay monies owed in a criminal or infraction case. (The third order stays eviction actions that currently are pending in the trial courts until June 21, 2020 and imposes other requirements related to eviction proceedings.) Notice of appeal. In her order extending the deadline for filing notices of appeal, the Chief Justice noted the need to clarify the interplay between her earlier orders extending the time by which documents were due to be filed and the North Carolina Supreme Court’s order extending by 60 days all deadlines imposed by the Rules of Appellate Procedure that fell between March 27, 2020 and April 30, 2020. The Chief Justice’s May 30, 2020 order thus extends to June 30, 2020 the deadline for filing a notice of appeal in any matter in which the deadline to file a notice of appeal falls between March 13, 2020 and June 1, 2020. Time to pay. On May 21, 2020, the Chief Justice entered an order (discussed here) extending deadlines in criminal cases. The May 21 order extended until the close of business on July 31, 2020 the deadline for filing documents and doing other acts that [...]