GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
1995 SESSION

CHAPTER 552
HOUSE BILL 1089

AN ACT TO REMOVE LANGUAGE REQUIRING AN ATTORNEY'S OPINION AND WRITTEN STATEMENT IN APPEALS BY INDIGENTS FROM THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION TO THE NORTH CAROLINA COURT OF APPEALS AND TO CLARIFY THE PROCEDURE FOR SUCH INDIGENT APPEALS.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  G.S. 97-86 reads as rewritten:
"§ 97-86.  Award conclusive as to facts; appeal; certified questions of law.
The award of the Industrial Commission, as provided in G.S. 97-84, if not reviewed in due time, or an award of the Commission upon such review, as provided in G.S. 97-85, shall be conclusive and binding as to all questions of fact; but either party to the dispute may, within 30 days from the date of such award or within 30 days after receipt of notice to be sent by registered mail or certified mail of such award, but not thereafter, appeal from the decision of said Commission to the Court of Appeals for errors of law under the same terms and conditions as govern appeals from the superior court to the Court of Appeals in ordinary civil actions.  The procedure for the appeal shall be as provided by the rules of appellate procedure.
The Industrial Commission of its own motion may certify questions of law to the Court of Appeals for decision and determination by said Court.  In case of an appeal from the decision of the Commission, or of a certification by said Commission of questions of law, to the Court of Appeals, said appeal or certification shall operate on a supersedeas except as provided in G.S. 97-86.1, and no employer shall be required to make payment of the award involved in said appeal or certification until the questions at issue therein shall have been fully determined in accordance with the provisions of this Article.  If the employer is a noninsurer, then the appeal of such employer shall not act as a supersedeas and the plaintiff in such case shall have the same right to issue execution or to satisfy the award from the property of the employer pending the appeal as obtains to the successful party in an action in the superior court.
When any party to an appeal from an award of the Commission is unable, by reason of his poverty, to make the deposit or to give the security required by law for said appeal, any member of the Commission or any deputy commissioner shall enter an order allowing said party to appeal from the award of the Commission without giving security therefor.  The party appealing from the judgment shall, within 30 days from the filing of the appeal from the award, make an affidavit that he is unable by reason of his poverty to give the security required by law. The request shall be passed upon and granted or denied by a member of the Commission or deputy commissioner within 20 days from receipt of the affidavit specified above."
Sec. 2.  This act becomes effective October 1, 1996, and applies to all appeals by indigents from an order of the Industrial Commission on or after that date.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 6th day of June, 1996.

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Dennis A. Wicker
President of the Senate

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Harold J. Brubaker
Speaker of the House of Representatives