North Carolina Enacts Class Certification Appeals Law

On April 26, 2016, the North Carolina General Assembly overrode Governor Roy Cooper's veto of a bill reducing the number of judges on the state Court of Appeals and providing for interlocutory appeals directly to the state Supreme Court from decisions regarding class action certification. The bill was controversial, but the public debate focused on the republican-controlled legislature's efforts to prevent the democratic governor from appointing new judges to replace three republican judges nearing mandatory retirement age. Although the class action provision was mostly overlooked, its passage represents a major change to class action practice in North Carolina state courts.

Prior to the passage of this law, North Carolina took a somewhat unique approach. North Carolina provides a litigant the right to take an interlocutory appeal of any order that "affects a substantial right."  An order denying class certification was immediately appealable because the courts