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North Carolina District Court 21

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The North Carolina District Court 21 resides in North Carolina. It serves Anson, Richmond, and Scotland counties. North Carolina House Bill 259 law restructured the superior court and district courts of the state in 2024. The law changed the name of the court from North Carolina District Court 16A to North Carolina District Court 21.[1]

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Jurisdiction

This court holds the following jurisdiction:[2]

Superior Courts

The Superior Courts are the general jurisdiction trial courts for the state. All felony criminal cases, civil cases involving more than $10,000 and misdemeanor, and infraction appeals from District Court are tried in Superior Court. A jury of 12 hears the criminal cases. In the civil cases, juries are often waived. The Superior Court is divided into eight divisions and 46 districts across the state. Judges are elected to 8-year terms, and rotate every six months between the districts within their division.[3]

Selection method

See also: Judicial selection in the states
See also: Partisan election of judges

The 98 judges of the North Carolina Superior Courts are chosen in partisan elections to serve eight-year terms. From 1998 through 2016, elections for superior court judges were nonpartisan; however, on March 23, 2017, the North Carolina legislature changed the method of election to partisan elections by overriding Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of HB 100. This change was effective with the 2018 superior court elections.[4][5][6][7][8]

The chief judge of each superior court is chosen by seniority.[9]

Qualifications
To serve on a superior court, a judge must be:

  • "learned in the law" and
  • under the age of 72 (retirement at 72 is mandatory).[9]

Judicial elections in North Carolina

See also: North Carolina judicial elections

North Carolina is one of 11 states that uses partisan elections to select judges and does not use retention elections for subsequent terms. To read more about how states use judicial elections to select judges across the country, click here.

Primary election

The judges of the North Carolina Superior Courts are chosen through partisan elections. Judges are elected to eight-year terms and must face re-election if they wish to serve again.[10]

The judges of the North Carolina District Courts are chosen through partisan elections. District judges serve four-year terms, after which they must run for re-election if they wish to remain on the court.[11][10]

See also



External links

Footnotes