GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1989

S	3 

SENATE BILL 758
Committee Substitute Reconsidered/Withdrawn 5/10/89
Third Edition Engrossed 5/11/89

Short Title:  Judicial License Plates.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Senator Daniel.
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Referred to:  Transportation.
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April 4, 1989

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO CLARIFY THE DESIGNATION OF CERTAIN OFFICIAL LICENSE PLATES ISSUABLE ON REQUEST TO THE JUDICIARY.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  G.S. 20-81(3) reads as rewritten:
"(3)	Judicial. – Official plates issued to the judiciary shall be issued as follows:
a.	Appellate division. – Official plates that shall be issued upon request to the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of North Carolina and the Chief Judge and Associate Judges of North Carolina Court of Appeals shall bear the letter ‘J' followed by numerical designation from 1 through 19. The Chief Justice upon request shall be issued the plate bearing number 1 and the remaining plates shall first be issued upon request to the Associate Justices on the basis of seniority. The Chief Judge shall be issued upon request the next such judicial plate and the remaining plates shall be issued upon request to the Associate Judges on the basis of seniority. Retired members of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals shall receive an official plate upon request similar in every respect to the plate issued to the regular justices and judges bearing the numerical designation of his or her position of seniority at the time of retirement except that the numerical designation shall be followed with the letter ‘X'. Official plate J-20 may be issued upon request to the Director of the Administrative Office of the Courts.
b.	Superior court. – Official plates shall be issued to the various senior resident superior court judges upon request and shall bear the letter ‘J' followed by a numerical designation which for a district as defined in G.S. 7A-41.1(a) shall be equal to the sum of the numerical designation of their respective judicial districts plus 20. Where there is more than one regular resident superior court judge for such a district, official plates shall upon request be issued to other resident judges of the district similar to the official plate to be issued upon request to the senior resident superior court judge of the district except the numerical designation on each subsequent plate shall be followed by a hyphen and a letter of the alphabet beginning with the letter ‘A', which shall be indicative of the recipient's position as to seniority. The numerical designation for the senior resident superior court judge for a set of districts as defined in G.S. 7A-41.1(a) shall be equal to the sum of 20 plus the numerical designation which the districts in the set have in common and shall be followed by no letter, and the numerical designation for each other regular resident superior court judge of the set of districts shall have the same numerical designation as that of the senior resident superior court judge and shall be followed by a hyphen and a letter of the alphabet beginning with the letter ‘A' which shall indicate the recipient's position as to seniority among all of the regular resident superior court judges of the set of districts and shall not necessarily correspond with the letter designation of the superior court district established under G.S. 7A-41 for which he is a resident judge, provided that in the set of districts 7B and 7C, the senior resident superior court judge for that set shall be issued on request an official plate bearing the designation 27C following the letter ‘J', and all other resident superior court judges of the set shall be issued on request an official plate bearing that designation followed by the letter ‘B'.  Special judges and emergency judges of the superior court shall be issued an official plate bearing the letter ‘J' with a numerical designation as designated by the Administrative Office of the Courts with the approval of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. Retired judges shall be issued a similar plate except that the numerical designation shall be followed by the letter ‘X'.
c.	North Carolina district court judges. – An official plate shall be issued upon request to each chief judge of the district courts of North Carolina which shall bear the letter ‘J' followed by a numerical designation equal to the sum of the numerical designation of their respective district court districts plus 100 and all other judges of the district courts serving within the same district court district shall, upon request, be issued an official plate bearing the same letter and numerical designation as appears on the official plate issued to the chief district judge of the district court district except that on each subsequent official plate issued within a district, the numerical designation shall be followed by a letter of the alphabet beginning with the letter ‘A' which shall be indicative of the recipient's position as to seniority. Retired judges shall be issued a similar plate except that the numerical designation shall be followed by the letter ‘X'.
c1.	Clerks of Superior Court.  Official plates shall be issued upon request to the various clerks of superior court which plate shall bear the words ‘Clerk Superior Court', followed by the numerical designation of their respective counties in alphabetical order, beginning with 100 and preceded by the letter ‘C'.
d.	District attorneys. – Official plates shall be issued upon request to the various district attorneys which plates shall bear the letters ‘DA', followed by a numerical designation indicative of their prosecutorial district.
e.	United States judges. – Official plates shall be issued upon request to Justices of the United States Supreme Court, Judges of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals and to the District Judges of the United States District Courts residing in North Carolina and shall bear the words ‘U.S. Judge', followed by a numerical designation beginning with the number ‘1' which shall be indicative of the judge's seniority position as to the date he began continuous service as a United States Judge as designated by the Secretary of State. Retired judges and judges who have taken senior status shall be issued similar plates except that the numerical designation shall be based upon the date of such retirement or assumption of senior status and shall follow the numerical designation of active justices and judges.
f.	United States attorneys. – Official plates shall be issued upon request to the United States Attorneys, which plates shall bear the letters, ‘U.S. Attorney', followed by a numerical designation indicative of their district, with 1 being the Eastern District, 2 being the Middle District, and 3 being the Western District.
g.	United States marshals. – Official plates shall be issued upon request to the United States Marshals, which plates shall bear the letters, ‘U.S. Marshal', followed by a numerical designation indicative of their district, with 1 being the Eastern District, 2 being the Middle District, and 3 being the Western District."
Sec. 2.  This act is effective upon ratification and shall apply to each effected person on the date of the first subsequent regular renewal of his existing appellate division plate, or upon the date of the subsequent regular issuance of his first appellate plate.