North Carolina Judicial Branch Administrative Office of the Courts<\/a> (NCAOC) is to provide centralized administration and budgeting services for courts across the state. The organization serves the more than 6,000 local officials in all 100 counties of the state. Their ultimate vision is to develop and standardize a set of recommendations for how court proceedings can conducted remotely.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe problem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The COVID-19 pandemic forced judicial officials to find creative, legal ways to hold court proceedings remotely out of necessity. Legislation passed in 2021 allows for the continued use technology to conduct many kinds of proceedings remotely, including the first appearance proceeding. NCAOC needed to come up with a model for how to schedule and conduct these appearances that would coordinate within and across counties while ensuring the rights and due process of the defendant. <\/p>\n\n\n