Let’s say your client is bitterly unhappy with the result of her equitable distribution hearing.
You re-read the trial transcript and confirm to yourself what you knew all along: you have a good appeal. You advise your client accordingly and brace for the inevitable: she wants to appeal now. Right away. Yesterday, if possible. But her alimony claim is still pending. Now what?
In the olden days, you were stuck. You could have yourself an immediate appeal of equitable distribution order. Or you could have yourself an alimony trial. But you could not have both, because any unresolved claim under chapter 50 rendered all other claims interlocutory. Tough choice. Postpone your appeal of equitable distribution order and watch the assets disappear. Or give up a perfectly good alimony claim in favor of the uncertainty of an appeal? Sophie’s choice indeed.
Happily, the horror is over. Just as long as the order you are trying to appeal dates after August 23, 2013. August 23 is the date when the Governor ratified House Bill 122, allowing appeals from absolute divorce, divorce from bed and board, child custody, child support, alimony, equitable distribution to go ahead while the rest of the claims are pending. All these orders are not interlocutory anymore. For the text of the new law, click here.
But what about the stay of action pending appeal, you ask? If I appeal the equitable distribution order, will the trial court have to wait for the decision until it can hear my alimony claim? Not at all. It will be business as usual in trial court. The drafters made sure of it. Amended N.C. Gen. Stat. §50-19.1 explicitly says so: “an appeal from an order or judgment under this section shall not deprive the trial court of jurisdiction over any claims pending in the same action.”
And what about those conservative appellant who actually liked the “wait and see” approach of the of the good old days? Well, they do not need to change one bit either. Do not want to take your chance in an alimony trial with the judge whose equitable distribution order you just appealed? You do not have to. “A party does not forfeit the right to appeal . . . if the party fails to immediately appeal from the order for [absolute divorce, bed and board, child custody, child support, alimony or equitable distribution.]” The drafters thought of everything. The new law is a real triumph of common sense.