Skip to content

Case law

SEARCH EVERY PUBLISHED OPINION

Every published opinion from the North Carolina appellate courts, the federal courts in North Carolina, and the U.S. Supreme Court, searched word for word. Type what you are looking for and the search opens on CourtListener, the free archive of court opinions run by Free Law Project, a nonprofit.

Which courts
SEARCH ON COURTLISTENER

Or start from one of these

  • Free, with no limit hereThe search runs on CourtListener's own site, so nothing counts against anything on this one.
  • Nothing you type comes hereThe words go straight from your browser to CourtListener. This site never sees them.
  • The opinions, not a summaryResults are the courts' own decisions. Which one matters to a particular case is a question for a licensed attorney.

THE COURTS IT SEARCHES

North Carolina
Supreme Court of North Carolina
Court of Appeals of North Carolina
Federal, in North Carolina
Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
District Court, E.D. North Carolina
District Court, M.D. North Carolina
District Court, W.D. North Carolina
Nationwide
Supreme Court of the United States

How far a decision reaches depends on the court. The U.S. Supreme Court binds every court on federal law. The highest court of North Carolina binds every North Carolina court on North Carolina law. A federal court of appeals binds the federal courts in its circuit, and not the state’s own courts on state law. Which decision applies to a particular situation is a question for a licensed attorney.

Looking for the decisions this guide already explains, each with its question in plain words? Case law for North Carolina