The question comes from people hurt on a North Carolina road who then went home, to another state or to a county far from the courthouse. North Carolina answers it one stage at a time, and each stage has its own rule. This post sets out every stage in one table, then covers the deposition rule, the forum exception that cuts against the plaintiff, the medical examination, hearings and trial testimony by video and the mediation attendance rule.
Where you have to be at each stage of a North Carolina case
Each court stage of a North Carolina injury case has its own rule about where you have to be, and the table pairs every stage with that rule. The table does not say how long any stage lasts.
| Stage | Rule | Where it puts you |
|---|---|---|
| First conversation | How we work with every client | By phone or video from wherever you are, in North Carolina or another state |
| First in-person meeting | How we work with every client | Anywhere in North Carolina, where I can come to you. Whether we work together is decided there |
| Written questions from the other side | N.C. R. Civ. P. 33(a) | Answered in writing under oath. Rule 33(a) names no place |
| Your deposition | N.C. R. Civ. P. 30(b)(1) and 30(b)(7) | For a nonresident, the county where you live or within 50 miles of the place of service. By telephone on written agreement or court order. In the forum county only on a judge's good cause order |
| Medical examination | N.C. R. Civ. P. 35(a) | The time and place a judge's order specifies, on motion and good cause |
| Hearings on motions | G.S. 7A-49.6(a) and (d) | In the courtroom or by audio and video. Not by video when the presiding official finds good cause for a party's objection |
| Mediated settlement conference | MSC Rule 4(a)(2) | In person unless everyone agrees on remote or hybrid, the mediator conducts only remote conferences or a judge orders otherwise |
| Testimony at a jury trial | G.S. 1-82 and G.S. 7A-49.6(c) | The county where the action is tried. By audio and video only on a good cause finding in the record |
The first two rows describe how we work and not a court rule. The phone or video call comes first and the in-person meeting follows, in the order the visit sequence sets out. A separate post covers what to bring to that first meeting.
None of the court rules in this table names the county where your attorney keeps an office. My office is in Graham, and no row above sends you there for that reason.
If you went home after a wreck on the coast, the Cape Fear page covers ordering the crash report by mail from another state.
Rule 30(b)(1) sets where a party living elsewhere is deposed
Rule 30(b)(1) of the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure, G.S. 1A-1, limits the places where a party can be required to attend a deposition. The rule draws one line for residents of North Carolina and a different line for nonresidents.
You live in another North Carolina county
A resident of North Carolina can be required to attend a deposition only in the county where the resident lives, is employed or transacts business in person. Rule 30(b)(1) does not list the county where the case is pending as a separate place for a resident.
You live in another state
A nonresident of North Carolina can be required to attend only in the county where the nonresident lives or within 50 miles of the place of service. The exception that lets a judge order the forum party back sits in this same sentence.
Rule 30(b)(1) covers parties and their officers, directors and managing agents, along with anyone designated under Rule 30(b)(6) to testify for a party. The injured person who files suit is a party, which puts the plaintiff's own deposition inside these limits.
Rule 30(b)(1) also sets the notice for a deposition. The notice goes to every party at least 15 days ahead when any party to be served lives outside the State, and at least 10 days ahead when all of them live inside it.
When the other driver is the one living out of state, the post on suing an out-of-state driver covers how the case reaches that driver.
Can a judge order me back to North Carolina for my deposition?
A North Carolina judge can order you back from another state for your deposition if you are the party who selected the county where the action is pending as the forum. Rule 30(b)(1) of the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure allows that order on a motion showing good cause, and the order requires the party to appear for the deposition in the county where the action is pending.
Exception. The forum exception in Rule 30(b)(1) cuts against the plaintiff. The injured person who files the lawsuit picks the county it is filed in, and that makes the plaintiff the party who selected the forum. The 50-mile protection for a nonresident gives way when a judge finds good cause and orders the plaintiff to come to that county.
The judge who grants that motion can also make any other order that Rule 26(c) allows, and Rule 30(b)(1) names orders about the deponent's expenses among them. Rule 30(h) defines which judge decides it. In a superior court action that is a superior court judge with jurisdiction under G.S. 7A-47.1 or G.S. 7A-48 in the county where the action is pending, and in a district court action it is the chief district judge or a judge the chief designates under G.S. 7A-192.
The injured person who files the lawsuit picks the county it is filed in.
I do not predict how a judge rules on a motion like this. I want a client who lives far away to know the exception exists before the case is filed.
Rule 30(b)(7) and a deposition by telephone
Rule 30(b)(7) lets the parties agree in writing to take a deposition by telephone. The court can also order one on motion. For the purposes of Rule 30 and Rules 28(a), 37(a)(1) and 45(d), a deposition by telephone is taken in the district and the place where the deponent answers the questions.
A Rule 35 medical exam happens where the court order says
The place of a medical examination in a North Carolina injury case is set by court order under Rule 35(a) of the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure. When the physical or mental condition of a party is in controversy, a judge of the court where the action is pending can order that party to submit to an examination by a physician.
Rule 35(a) allows the order only on motion for good cause shown, with notice to the person to be examined and to all parties. The order has to specify the time, place, manner, conditions and scope of the examination along with the person or persons who will conduct it.
Rule 35(a) names no county and no mileage limit for the examination. The place comes from the judge's order.
Rule 35(a) takes its definition of the judge from Rule 30(h), the same definition that governs the deposition motion.
Video hearings and remote trial testimony under G.S. 7A-49.6
Except as G.S. 7A-49.6 provides otherwise, G.S. 7A-49.6(a) authorizes North Carolina judicial officials to hold proceedings of every type over an audio and video connection when the parties, the presiding official and every other participant can see and hear one another. The same subsection directs the official holding a remote proceeding to safeguard the constitutional rights of the people involved and to preserve the integrity of the judicial process.
G.S. 7A-49.6(b) protects your connection to your attorney during a remote proceeding. Each represented party has to be able to communicate fully and confidentially with that party's attorney.
A civil hearing, G.S. 7A-49.6(d)
When a party objects to a remote civil proceeding and the presiding official finds good cause for the objection, the proceeding is not held by audio and video. Without an objection, or when good cause is not shown, the presiding official can go ahead by audio and video.
A civil jury trial witness, G.S. 7A-49.6(c)
In a civil proceeding with a jury, the court can allow a witness to testify by audio and video only after finding in the record that good cause exists under the circumstances.
G.S. 7A-49.6 permits a remote proceeding and does not require one. The presiding official decides within the section's limits, including subsections (c) and (d).
G.S. 1-82 and the county where the action is tried
G.S. 1-82 sends an action for trial to a county where a plaintiff or a defendant resides at its commencement, and it adds rules for cases with no defendant or no party living in North Carolina. The post on an injury in a county you do not live in applies that statute to a wreck far from home.
Do I have to attend mediation in person under MSC Rule 4?
Mediation in a North Carolina superior court civil action follows the Rules for Mediated Settlement Conferences and Other Settlement Procedures in Superior Court Civil Actions, as amended by order approved December 11, 2024, effective January 6, 2025. Under Rule 1(c)(1), the senior resident superior court judge requires by written order that every person and entity named in Rule 4 attend a pretrial mediated settlement conference. The rule leaves out actions seeking an extraordinary writ and appeals of a driver's license revocation.
Rule 4(a)(1) lists who attends. Every individual party attends, and that includes you. A representative attends for each liability, uninsured motorist and underinsured motorist insurance carrier that could be obligated to pay all or part of the claim. At least one counsel of record attends for each party whose counsel has appeared.
How Rule 4(a)(2) decides between in person and remote
Everyone required to attend agrees
The participants can agree to meet in person, by remote technology or by a hybrid of the two. Rule 4(a)(2)a.1 leaves that choice to them.
No agreement and a remote-only mediator
If the mediator has designated in the Mediator Information Directory that the mediator conducts conferences only by remote technology, the conference runs by remote technology.
No agreement and any other mediator
Without an agreement and without that remote-only designation, Rule 4(a)(2)a.3 holds the conference in person.
A party asks the senior resident judge
On a party's motion with notice, the senior resident superior court judge can order the conference in person, by remote technology or as a hybrid. A mediator whose directory designation conflicts with that order can withdraw under Rule 2(d).
Exception. Rule 4(a)(4) lets a party or person be excused from attending at all with the consent of every party and person required to attend and the consent of the mediator.
The official comment on Rule 4(a)(2)a says a mediator holding a remote conference should make sure the parties can fully communicate with all other participants, and it encourages videoconferencing.
