United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina

• Court
• Judges

Eastern District of North Carolina Fourth Circuit Chief: James Dever Judges: 3 Posts: 4 Vacancies: 1 Active judges Boyle • Flanagan Senior Judges Britt • Fox • Howard Magistrate Judges Daniel • Gates • Webb • Jones Former Judges

Key: (Numbers indicate % of seats vacant.) 0% 0%-10% 10%-25% 25%-40% More than 40%

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina is a United States district court

When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals based in Downtown Richmond, VA at the Lewis F. Powell Federal Courthouse.

Vacancy warning level

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina's vacancy warning level is currently set at yellow. The court currently has one vacancy and no pending appointments.

Jurisdiction

The Counties of the Eastern District of North Carolina (click for larger map)

The geographic jurisdiction of the Eastern District of North Carolina consists of all the following counties in the eastern part of the state of North Carolina.

There are four court divisions, each covering the following counties:

The Eastern Division, covering Beaufort, Carteret, Craven, Edgecombe, Greene, Halifax, Hyde, Jones, Lenoir, Martin, Pamlico and Pitt Counties

The Northern Division, covering Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Hertford, Northampton, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell and Washington Counties

The Southern Division, covering Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender, Robeson and Sampson Counties

The Western Division, covering Cumberland, Franklin, Granville, Harnett, Johnston, Nash, Vance, Wake, Wayne, Warren and Wilson Counties

It has three staffed offices and holds court in six cities: Elizabeth City, Fayetteville, Greenville, New Bern, Raleigh, and Wilmington. Its main office is in Raleigh.

When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals based in Downtown Richmond, VA at the Lewis F. Powell Federal Courthouse.

Cases heard

The Western District of North Carolina has original jurisdiction over cases filed within its jurisdiction. These cases can include civil and criminal matters that fall under federal law.

Case load

Federal Court Case Load Statistics*

Year	Starting case load:	Cases filed:	Total cases:	Cases terminated:	Remaining cases:	Median time(Criminal)**:	Median time(Civil)**:	3 Year Civil cases#:	Vacant posts:##	Trials/Post
2010	2211	2328	4539	2006	2533	8.5	8.6	154(8.7%)	12	29
2009	1995	2149	4144	1937	2207	8.1	8.7	95(6%)	12	40
2008	1840	2101	3941	1935	2006	8.2	8.8	88(6.1%)	12	31
2007	1836	2058	3894	2063	1831	8.7	10.3	83(6.7%)	12	26
2006	1986	1878	3864	2085	1779	8.5	12.5	61(4.7%)	9	18

*All statistics are taken from the Official Federal Courts' Website and reflect the calendar year through September.    **Time in months from filing to completion. #This statistic includes cases which have been appealed in higher courts.    ##This is the total number of months that any all judicial posts had spent vacant that year.

Clerk's office

The Eastern District of North Carolina has six divisions. Offices are open Monday-Friday excluding holidays. The official Clerk of Court is Dennis P. Iavarone and can be contacted at 919-645-1700. Please consult the chart below for more information on courthouse locations:

Location	Address	Phone number
Elizabeth City Division	United States Courthouse 306 East Main Street Elizabeth City, NC 27909	UnStaffed
Fayetteville Division	United States Courthouse 3rd Floor 301 Green Street Fayetteville, NC 28302	910.483.9509 (UnStaffed)
Greenville Division	United States Courthouse 201 South Evans St., Rm 209 Greenville, NC 27858	252.830.6009 (8:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M.)
New Bern Division	United States Courthouse 413 Middle Street New Bern, NC 28560	252.638.8534 (8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.)
Raleigh Division	Clerk of Court PO Box 25670 Raleigh, NC 27611	919.645.1700(8:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M.)
Wilmington Division	United States Courthouse 2 Princess Street Wilmington, NC 28401	910.815.4663(8:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M.)

History

Court history

The District of North Carolina was established by Congress on June 4, 1790 with one post to cover the entire state. On June 4, 1872, Congress divided the district into the Eastern District of North Carolina and the Western District of North Carolina with one post for each district. On March 2, 1927 Congress split the Middle District of North Carolina off from the existing districts. Over time congress added three posts to the Eastern District of North Carolina to reach the current total of 4 posts.

Judicial posts

The following table highlights the development of judicial posts for the Western District of North Carolina:

Year	Statute	Total Seats
June 4, 1790	1 Stat. 126	1 (Whole state)
June 4, 1872	17 Stat. 215	1
May 19, 1961	75 Stat. 80	2
June 2, 1970	84 Stat. 294	3 (1 Temporary)
1975	Post expired	2
October 20, 1978	92 Stat. 1629	3
July 10, 1984	98 Stat. 333	4(1 Temporary)
December 1, 1990	104 Stat. 5089	4

Notable cases

For a searchable list of opinions, please see Opinions of the Eastern District of North Carolina.

• Ruffin Poole case  Judge(s):Terrence Boyle      *USA v. Poole 5:10-cr-00021-BO

From 2010 to 2011, Judge Boyle presided in the corruption trial of Ruffin Poole, a former aide to then-North Carolina Governor Mike Easley. During a plea hearing on April 5, 2010, Poole entered pleas of not guilty on 57 different counts ranging from bribery and money laundering. In a plea agreement in April 2010, Poole plead guilty to tax evasion in order to have 50-odd corruption charges dropped. Judge Boyle sentenced him to one year and one day in prison and a $30,000 fine.

Federal courthouse

There are six federal courthouses that serve the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Major news

For new stories and other related material see North Carolina judicial news.

See also

• United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

External links

• Official website
• Judges of the Eastern District of North Carolina
• US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina
• Opinions of the Eastern District of North Carolina

References

Eastern District of North Carolina Fourth Circuit Chief: James Dever Judges: 3 Posts: 4 Vacancies: 1 Active judges Boyle • Flanagan Senior Judges Britt • Fox • Howard Magistrate Judges Daniel • Gates • Webb • Jones Former Judges

Key: (Numbers indicate % of seats vacant.) 0% 0%-10% 10%-25% 25%-40% More than 40%

Active judges

Article III judges

See: Article III federal judge
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina has 4 posts and 1 vacancy. The current Chief Judge is James Dever. This is a list of the current judges on the court:

Judge	Born	Home	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Preceeded	Bachelors	Law
Judge Louise Flanagan	1962	Richmond, VA	W. Bush	07/18/2003 - Present	2004 - 2011	James Fox	Wake Forest U., B.A., 1984	U. of Virginia Law, J.D., 1988
Judge Terrence Boyle	1945	Passaic, NJ	Reagan	05/03/1984 - Present	1997 - 2004	Franklin Dupree	Brown, B.A., 1967	American U. Law, J.D., 1970
Chief Judge James Dever	1962	Lake Charles, LA	W. Bush	05/02/2005 - Present	2011 - Present	Earl Britt	Notre Dame, B.B.A., 1984	Duke U. Law, J.D., 1987

Pending appointments

There are no current pending appointments for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Senior judges

See: Federal judges on senior status
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina has 3 judges on senior status currently. This is a list of the current senior judges on the court:

Judge	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Senior	Bachelors	Law
Senior Judge Earl Britt	Carter	05/23/1980 - 12/06/1997	1983 - 1990	12/07/1997 - Present	Wake Forest U., B.S., 1956	Wake Forest Law, LL.B., 1958
Senior Judge James Fox	Reagan	09/30/1982 - 01/30/2001	1990 - 1997	01/31/2001 - Present	U. of North Carolina, B.S., 1950	U. of North Carolina Law, J.D., 1957
Senior Judge Malcolm Howard	Reagan	02/26/1998 - 12/30/2005		12/31/2005 - Present	U.S. Military Academy, West Point, B.S., 1962	Wake Forest Law, J.D., 1970

Magistrate judges

Judge	Active	Bachelors	Law
Magistrate Judge James Gates	01/27/2006 - Present
Magistrate Judge William Webb	10/18/1999 - Present
Magistrate Judge Robert Jones, Jr.	10/12/2007 - Present

Past judges

Former Chief judges

Judge	Term
John Larkins	1975 - 1979
Franklin Dupree	1979 - 1983
Algernon Butler	1961 - 1975
Terrence Boyle	1997 - 2004
James Fox	1990 - 1997
Earl Britt	1983 - 1990
Louise Flanagan	2004 - 2011

In order to qualify for the office of Chief Judge in one of the federal courts, a judge must have been in active service on the court for at least one year, be under the age of 65, and have not previously served as Chief Judge. A vacancy in the office of Chief Judge is filled by the judge highest in seniority among the group of qualified judges. The Chief Judge serves for a term of seven years or until age 70, whichever occurs first. The age restrictions are waived if no members of the court would otherwise be qualified for the position. Unlike the Chief Justice of the United States, a Chief Judge returns to active service after the expiration of his or her term and does not create a vacancy on the bench by the fact of his or her promotion. See 28 U.S.C. § 45.

These rules for Chief Judges in the federal judiciary have been in effect since October 1, 1982. The office of Chief Judge was created in 1948. Until August 6, 1959, the position was filled in each federal court by the longest-serving judge who had not elected to retire on what has since 1958 been known as senior status or declined to serve as Chief Judge. From then until 1982 it was filled by the senior such judge who had not turned 70.

Former judges

1. George Washington Brooks
2. Augustus Sherrill Seymour
3. Thomas Richard Purnell
4. Henry Groves Connor
5. Isaac Melson Meekins
6. Algernon Butler
7. Franklin Dupree
8. Donnell Gilliam
9. John Larkins