If you’ve read this website and familiarized yourself with my background, you know that I practice exclusively in appellate law. All state appeals are handled centrally in Raleigh, so I’m able to take cases from all over the state and handle them from my office in Durham. Nonetheless, every once in a while an appeal does not just end with an opinion from the Court of Appeals. The Court may direct the county Superior Court to conduct further proceedings. While a client’s original trial counsel often can handle matters at that point, sometimes the matter is so closely related to the appeal that it is simpler and more efficient for me to take off my appellate lawyer hat and do a little work at the trial level. I almost never take cases after an appeal that require a deep dive into the evidence, but if the matter is a pure question of law, I’m often better situated to handle it than anyone else. Because this occurs so rarely, perhaps twice a year, I actually enjoy the opportunity to travel the state and visit some of our local courthouses.
Most recently, after this firm’s successful appeal in Adventure Trail v. Owens [[ Case Link ]], the Superior Court made a ruling after remand which required a Rule 59 motion. I handled that motion in lovely Waynesville, N.C. at the Haywood County Courthouse. Here’s a picture of the historic courthouse, nestled in the mountains of western North Carolina.
