Dear clients, colleagues, and friends:

Update Regarding Brown & Associates, PLLC Operations
 

The COVID-19 virus is dominating the news cycle, and it must also be dominating your personal and professional conversations. Brown & Associates, PLLC is no different. We are actively implementing our response to this situation while operating in an environment of considerable uncertainty.

We are all in this together.
 

At Brown & Associates PLLC, we are leaning on our core values: commitment, professionalism, common sense, respect, and communication. These values have guided us since our founding in 1999, and we test all our actions against them.
 

We draw on almost forty collective years of experience in helping our clients navigate through their most urgent and challenging legal situations. In a crisis, the foremost concerns must be personal health and safety—of our families, our employees, and ourselves. Taking care of those who contract the virus and joining the global community in taking sensible steps to slow its spread is of the utmost importance. With that said, our office will continue to run on a regular schedule for now. In as much as it is possible all appointments with our offices will be held by telephone or virtual teleconferencing technology. We ask that there be no drop-ins during this time. 

Update Regarding NC Courts Operations

In a memo released yesterday, March 15, 2020, Chief Justice Cheri Beasley asked judicial officials to drastically reduce operations in courthouses throughout the state in an effort to further limit the spread of the coronavirus. The memo updated several directives delivered in her March 13 order limiting operations of the North Carolina court system. Chief Justice Beasley stressed that while courthouses must remain open, officials must drastically curtail trips to local courts to help reduce community transmission of COVID-19 and further protect employees of the courts who must still interact with the public.
 

“Put simply, it cannot be business as usual for our court system. Non-essential court functions that cannot be accomplished through the use of remote technology must be postponed,” the memo said.

The memo sent jointly by the Chief Justice and NCAOC Director McKinley Wooten directed the following:
 

In-person meetings must be postponed or cancelled to the fullest extent possible.
 

When cases or hearings cannot be postponed for the next 30 days, remote technologies should be utilized as authorized by law and to the fullest extent possible.
 

Involuntary commitment hearings, guardianship hearings, and pressing estate administration matters should be conducted, but other matters before the clerk, such as foreclosures and other special proceedings, must be postponed.
 

Magistrates must conduct initial appearances and, subject to health precautions, should continue to perform weddings, but small claims proceedings, including evictions, must be postponed.

All civil and criminal district and superior court matters must be postponed unless they are absolutely essential for constitutional or public safety reasons.
 

The Chief Justice’s order issued on Friday, March 13, directed that all superior and district court proceedings be postponed for at least 30 days, with some exceptions (see the Supreme Court Order for all exceptions and additional directives).
 

In light of this rapidly evolving public health situation, the Judicial Branch will be providing continuously updated information and answers to frequently asked questions on our website, NCcourts.gov. The public is encouraged to visit NCcourts.gov as a first resort to determine if a question can be answered without calling the local courthouse. 
 

Online court services are available for handling some court business, including citation services, paying your ticket, court payments, signing up for court date notifications and reminders, eFiling court documents for certain courts and case types, and more.
 

MORE INFORMATION

• Read the Supreme Court Order

• Watch the announcement on the Judicial Branch Facebook page

• NCcourts.gov

 

Update Regarding SC Courts Operations

The latest news regarding closures in the SC court system can be found here. The SC judiciary has not yet made a widespread decision for all counties in the state.

We will provide additional information as it becomes available. Thank you.