Free Online Access to Advance Sheets for NC Reports

As more time is spent conducting research from home, researchers are considering digital alternatives to many resources traditionally consulted in print. One of the many popular print resources in the UNC Law Library are the advance sheets for the North Carolina Reports, including both the North Carolina Reports of the Supreme Court and the North Carolina Court of Appeals Reports.

Advance sheets are softbound booklets with recent court decisions. They include reporter citation information, page numbers, editorial enhancements, and finding aids. Advance sheets are published after the slip opinion, but before there are enough cases to publish the final bound reporter volume.

Students seek out advance sheets for cite checks. Faculty peruse them for current awareness. Others consult them due to formatting preferences. However, concerns about COVID-19 have limited access to shared print resources in libraries.

Luckily, advance sheets for the North Carolina Reports are freely available online through the North Carolina Courts website. You can view advance sheets for over one year of recent court decisions by the North Carolina Supreme Court and the North Carolina Court of Appeals.

If you need more recent opinions than the advance sheets cover, you can view appellate court slip opinions here. These opinions include the court’s decision written by the judge without editorial enhancements or final publication information.

If you need older opinions than the advance sheets cover, you can view PDF volumes for the North Carolina Reports here. Volumes one – present are available for both the North Carolina Reports for the Supreme Court and the North Carolina Court of Appeals Reports.

While it’s not quite the same as viewing the softbound advance sheets, the digital version provides the formatting and browsability benefits of the print reading experience. For those looking for the most recent collection of opinions by the court or to verify citations, the NC Courts website’s advance sheets collection can be a great online resource.