Juvenile Law Bulletin #2024/01

North Carolina law allows, and sometimes requires, movement of cases between juvenile and criminal jurisdiction. Certain cases that originate under juvenile jurisdiction can or must move from juvenile jurisdiction to the jurisdiction of the superior court. This is called transfer. Whether a juvenile case is subject to transfer and how a case subject to transfer is transferred depends on the age of the juvenile at the time of the offense and the offense that is charged. Beginning with offenses committed on or after December 1, 2024, some offenses alleged to have been committed by a minor will begin under the original jurisdiction of the criminal law and may be moved to juvenile court to be processed as a delinquency matter. This is called removal. Part I of this bulletin describes the transfer process, from case origination through appeal of a transfer order. Part II describes the process for removal of a case from superior court to juvenile court.