People often say that district court is not a court of record for purposes of criminal cases. Is that right? On the one hand . . . While G.S. 15A-1241 requires that a reporter make a true, complete and accurate record of criminal trial proceedings in superior court, there is no corresponding statutory requirement for criminal trial proceedings in district court, subject to one exception: G.S. 7A-191.1 requires that a true, complete and accurate record be made of a district court proceeding in which a defendant pleads guilty to a Class H or I felony. This divergent practice generally requires that matters appealed from district to superior court be determined de novo and gives rise to the common characterization of district criminal court as “not a court of record.” See, e.g., State v. Ward, 127 N.C. App. 115, 119 (1997). On the other hand . . . But that is not the only conception of the term court of record. Courts of record are elsewhere defined as courts that administer the general law of the land, have both civil and criminal jurisdiction, and in which a record of the actions taken therein are memorialized and preserved. See Bain v. Hunt, 10 N.C. 572, 576–77 (1825); cf. People v. Rodriguez, 112 P.3d 693, 703–04 (Colo. 2005) (defining courts of record as courts of general jurisdiction that conduct proceedings in accordance with the common law, can impose contempt, fines, and imprisonment, whose records carry “‘absolute verity’” subject only to collateral attack and that [...]
Faculty Coordinators
