North Carolina in the United States
Legal Materials
Internet links to North Carolina government agencies, statutes, regulations, cases, etc. are posted by FindLaw, Washlaw and the Georgetown Law Library. Primary legal materials are also available from Lexis, Westlaw, Bloomberg Law and LOISLaw. Google Scholar has free cases back to 1950; subscription sites Versuslaw and Fastcase also have cases back to 1950. Supreme and appellate court cases are reported in West’sSouth Eastern Reporter.
To check the status of pending bills, pull up the Bills page of the General Assembly Web site or call the North Carolina Legislative Library (919-733-9390 or 919-733-7778).
Click here for a picture of the North Carolina court system.
For a thorough discussion of North Carolina law, see Strong’s North Carolina Index 4th: An Encyclopedic Treatment of North Carolina Law, available in print or on Westlaw (NCINDEX). For a discussion of North Carolina legal research, see the North Carolina Legal Research Guide (W.S. Hein) by Scott Childs and Nick Sexton or the conciseLegal Research in North Carolina (Carolina Academic Press) by Miriam Baer.
For legislative history information, see North Carolina Legislative History: Step by Step by the North Carolina Legislative Library and/or Legislative History Research in North Carolina by Amanda McCabe. If you have questions, contact the North Carolina Legislative Library (919-733-9390 or 919-733-7778).
Attorney General Opinions: AG opinions are posted back to 1977 on the Legal Opinions page posted by the North Carolina Department of Justice. You can contact the DOJ to get earlier opinions (919-716-6400 or ncago@ncdoj.gov). North Carolina AG opinions are also available through Lexis (1997-present) and Westlaw (1997-present). Older AG Opinions are available in print in Biennial Report of the Attorney General of the State of North Carolina; PDFs are available through LLMC Digital (1889-1992) or you can call a library that holds the Biennial Report.
Docket Sheets and Case Filings: Docket sheet databases are available for the Supreme Court of North Carolina, the North Carolina Court of Appeals and the North Carolina Business Court. You can get case information for North Carolina Superior and District courts through CourtLink. CourtSearch.com has criminal and civil docket sheets, infractions, civil judgments, and driving records. Court Logic has civil and criminal cases, driving records and motor vehicle registration records.
Both docket sheets and selected case filings for the North Carolina Supreme Court and Court of Appeals cases are available back to 2000 through the court system’sDocument Library. Older filings can be obtained (1) by contacting the relevant court or (2) in print and microfiche Records and Briefs collections (see the Court Records and Briefs page posted by the Kathrine R. Everitt Law Library at the University of North Carolina).
Jury Instructions: North Carolina Pattern Jury Instructions for Civil, Criminal, and Motor Vehicle cases are available from the UNC School of Government.
News: North Carolina’s legal newspaper is the North Carolina Lawyers Weekly. The business newspaper is Business North Carolina.
For questions about North Carolina legal materials, copies and/or inter-library loan, try calling the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Law Library (919-962-1321) and/or Duke University School of Law Library (919-613-7121).
For document retrieval, Dash Courier and Logistics (888-755-3274) covers the major cities in North and South Carolina. They also make filings with the courts, land records and secretary of state offices.
Note: We linked the resources to archive.org in an effort to decrease the number of broken links cited.
For more U.S. state primary law resources, see:
- U.S. State Law: Constitutional
- U.S. State Cases
- U.S. State Law: Codes
- U.S. State Law: Statutes
- U.S. State Legislative: Bills
- U.S. State Law: Municipal
Topics Covered by the North Carolina Legal Encyclopedia
Note: More detailed information about this State is provided in the North Carolina jurisdictional legal Encyclopedia, which tie together North Carolina statutory and case law.
Topics include:
- North Carolina Statutes
- NC Cases & Case Law
- North Carolina Legal Websites
- NC State Government Info
- North Carolina Counties
- North Carolina Cities
- North Carolina Legislation
- NC Court Reporters/Depositions
- North Carolina Legal Forms
- North Carolina Courts
- NC State Bar/Legal Associations
- NC Law Enforcement
- North Carolina Media Sources
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