As Western North Carolina works to regain a sense of normalcy four weeks after Tropical Storm Helene and sessions for most courts resume, judicial officials in some disaster-area counties are attempting to catch up on a case backlog.
When Helene rolled through North Carolina on Sept. 27, 38 counties reported court closings or special advisories due to weather. As of Oct. 23, some counties along the Tennessee border are still dealing with closures or significant adjustments to their court operations. But more will be working through a backlog of canceled court sessions for the immediate future.
At least one county has more severe ongoing problems. Madison County’s courthouse suffered significant flood damage to its location near the French Broad River in Marshall. The county is currently using the county’s agricultural center as an alternate location to carry out essential court duties.
[Subscribe for FREE to Carolina Public Press’ alerts and weekend roundup newsletters]
The courts in the 35th judicial district – which comprises Watauga, Avery, Mitchell, Yancey and Madison – have been opening up in stages and resuming normal operations over the past week, district court manager Evan Redmond told Carolina Public Press. That is thanks in part to the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts restoring internet connectivity to affected courthouses via Starlink satellites.
Superior court, which is a trial court that deals with felonies and civil cases involving more than $25,000, is back up and running in Watauga, Avery and Mitchell. Superior Court in Yancey and Madison are slated to start by the end of October.
Redmond told CPP that there will be a backlog of court sessions, but she does not expect cases in those counties to be significantly delayed overall. She said the courts’ prior experience during the COVID-19 pandemic prepared them to handle a small pileup of court sessions.
“We will be able to get rid of any backlog that we had quickly since we now know how to do it best for our district,” Redmond said.
“There may be a couple months backed up, but I don’t foresee it going much into 2025.”
Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court Paul Newby used his emergency powers following the storm to allow magistrates to be assigned to counties outside their district and to establish alternate filing locations in counties whether the courthouse is inaccessible or closed.
He amended one of his emergency orders on Oct. 11, to extend filing deadlines in 13 counties. Those counties were Avery, Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Transylvania, Watauga and Yancey.
In those counties, all filings or other court actions that were due between Sept. 26 and Oct. 28 will be considered timely if they are done by Oct. 28.
In a video message on Oct. 8, Newby also said the North Carolina Judicial Branch is allowing lawyers from outside the state to register to offer their services pro bono to victims of the storm. CPP reached out to the Administrative Office of the Courts to ask how many out-of-state attorneys have offered free services to disaster victims but did not receive a response before the publication of this story.
Rebecca Eggers-Gryder, one of the district court judges in the 35th district, told CPP that she’s witnessed resiliency from both judicial officials and people involved with court cases as they work through the challenges of the past month.
“Our clerks, our (district attorney’s) office, our Superior Court judges, everybody’ s pulling together,” Eggers-Gryder said. “We have people coming up with solutions and not problems, and that’s what you need in a time of crisis.”
On Tuesday, Eggers-Gryder held district court at the Mitchell County Courthouse for the first time since Helene. Watauga resumed district court sessions last week, and Avery started district court back up on Monday. Yancey and Madison will be the last to resume district court sessions, sometime in early November.
Eggers-Gryder told CPP that specialty courts in her district – which includes Adult Drug Treatment Court and Safe Babies Court – have been put on hold for the most part, although they’ve been able to hold some virtual sessions with participants in those courts.
The situation and method of handling specific types of cases varies by county.
In Yancey County, Superior Civil Court, which takes place at the main courthouse in Burnsville, is canceled through at least this week.
Watauga County Superior Criminal Court, which takes place at the main courthouse in Boone, told jurors that they did not have to appear this week, although some superior court sessions were conducted earlier this week.
Jail logistics
Some inmates at the county jails also had to be transferred to other facilities because of the impacts of the storm, adding another logistical issue for law enforcement and court officials to work through.
Some inmates at the Yancey County Jail were moved to McDowell, which has also held Mitchell County’s inmates ever since their jail burnt down in 2002.
Avery’s inmates were moved to Rowan County after the Avery jail experienced water and sewage issues as a result of the storm, but Avery County Sheriff Mike Henley told CPP that they have all been transferred back as of this week.
Those moves have required coordination with law enforcement officials in McDowell and Rowan to hold virtual court sessions with the displaced inmates, particularly new arrivals that needed emergency sessions for things such as first appearances, appointing attorneys and setting bonds for pretrial release.
Redmond told CPP that while the moves added a layer of complexity to the courts’ operations following the storm, they haven’t been much of an issue in terms of delaying court functions.
Challenges remain for NC mountain courts
Now that courthouses have begun opening up and internet connectivity has been restored, the courts in Western North Carolina have a greater capacity to move cases forward.
However, it will still take a while to get back to a sense of normalcy.
For example, many secondary roads in the western part of the state still need repairs so that residents from rural areas can get to their in-person court sessions.
“It’s inconvenient,” Eggers-Gryder said.
“But our whole goal is having equal access to justice — to make sure we can keep going so that people can get there, and we’ re making every effort we can.”
Related
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may republish our stories for free, online or in print. Simply copy and paste the article contents from the box below. Note, some images and interactive features may not be included here.