Information About the North Carolina District Court

The North Carolina District Court was first established in 1790 as part of the United States federal court system, which has 94 United States district courts serving as the general trial courts.

The District Courts located in North Carolina are the following:

•    U.S. District Court for Eastern District
•    U.S. District Court for Middle District
•    U.S. District Court for Western District

Both civil as well as criminal cases are heard in the U.S. District Courts, which are designated as the courts of “law, equity, and admiralty”. In each judicial district there is a minimum of 1 court, and there are many which contain several.

Other federal courts rule nationwide over particular types of cases. Only the district court has concurrent jurisdiction over many of them, and the only one over criminal cases.

Eastern District

The Eastern District has three offices and the court sits in 6 cities: Fayetteville, Elizabeth City, Greenville, Raleigh, New Bern and Wilmington. The central office is located in Raleigh and there are 4 divisions. The District Court of the Eastern District is the U.S. District Court that serves the eastern 44 counties in North Carolina.
 
The eastern division’s headquarters is at Greenville and the cases are handled from Craven, Beaufort, Carteret, Edgecombe, Halifax, Green, Hyde, Lenoir, Jones, Pitt and Pamlico counties. The website of the District Court for the Eastern District of the state is http://www.nced.uscourts.gov.

Middle District

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District has jurisdiction over 24 counties in the center of the state. It consists of 5 divisions with the headquarters located in Greensboro.

Appeals from the Middle District are brought to the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (but not for cases of patent claims as well as claims made against the government according to Tucker Act, because these are appealed to a Federal Circuit). The official website of the District Court for the Middle District is http://www.ncmd.uscourts.gov.

Western District

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of the state is a Federal district court that covers the western portion of the state.

The jurisdiction of this court covers these counties: Alexander, Avery, Burke, Anson, Caldwell, Buncombe, Catawba, Cherokee, Cleveland, Clay, Graham, Gaston, Henderson, Haywood, Iredell, Lincoln, Jackson, McDowell, Madison, Macon, Polk, Mecklenburg, Rutherford, Mitchell, Transylvania, Yancey, Swain, and Union. It has jurisdiction over the cities of Hickory. Asheville and Charlotte.

The official website of the US District Court meant for Western District is http://www.ncwd.uscourts.gov.

If for some reason you disagree with a Federal District Court decision, you can appeal to a U.S. Court of Appeals. Failing that, you can ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the U.S. Court of Appeals’ decision. The Supreme Court, may or may not do so, and it is the final arbiter of federal constitutional questions.