Practice Areas - Appeals

After graduating from law school, Jim Scarbrough became law clerk to Judge Robert M. Martin of the North Carolina Court of Appeals, Raleigh, N.C. Law clerks served for one year and each judge hired one clerk. At that time there were nine judges on the Court of Appeals and they made decisions in approximately 1,000 cases with each judge sitting on a three judge panel hearing approximately 300 cases and each judge filing approximately 100 opinions.

From 1975 to 1980, Jim served in the Office of the Attorney General of North Carolina. He was Associate Attorney and Assistant Attorney General assigned to represent state agencies; primarily assigned to the North Carolina Real Estate Commission. He was also assigned as special counsel to the N.C. Judicial Standards Commission. During that time he represented the State of North Carolina in both civil and criminal appellate cases before the North Carolina Court of Appeals and North Carolina Supreme Court.

From 1975 to the present time, Jim has appeared in over 100 appellate cases involving direct appeals, petitions for certiorari, motions, and petitions for discretionary review. These cases have spanned the gamut of law and have included criminal offenses from murder to trespass, title disputes, torts, construction, environmental, municipal law, and the constitutionality of ordinances and statutes.