North Carolina § 7A-210 - Small claim action defined.

§ 7A-210. Small claim action defined.

For purposes of this Article a small claim action is a civil action wherein: The amount in controversy, computed in accordance with G.S. 7A-243, does not exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000); and The only principal relief prayed is monetary, or the recovery of specific personal property, or summary ejectment, or any combination of the foregoing in properly joined claims; and The plaintiff has requested assignment to a magistrate in the manner provided in this Article. The seeking of the ancillary remedy of claim and delivery or an order from the clerk of superior court for the relinquishment of property subject to a lien pursuant to G.S 44A-4(a) does not prevent an action otherwise qualifying as a small claim under this Article from so qualifying. History (1965, c. 310, s. 1; 1973, c. 1267, s. 1; 1979, c. 144, s. 1; 1981, c. 555, s. 1; 1985, c. 329; c. 655, s. 1; 1989, c. 311, s. 1; 1993, c. 107, s. 1; c. 553, s. 73(a); 1999-411, s. 1; 2004-128, s. 1; 2013-159, s. 1.) Editor's Note. - Session Laws 2013-159, s. 6, made the amendment to this section by Session Laws 2013-159, s. 1, applicable to actions filed on or after August 1, 2013. Effect of Amendments. - Session Laws 2013-159, s. 1, effective August 1, 2013, substituted "ten thousand dollars ($10,000)" for "five thousand dollars ($5,000)" in subdivision (1). For applicability, see editor's note. Legal Periodicals. - For article on defending the low-income tenant in North Carolina, see 2 N.C. Cent. L.J. 21 (1970). For article discussing 1983 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure relative to magistrate practice, comparing state court magistrate practice, and making certain suggestions, see 20 Wake Forest L. Rev. 819 (1984). For article, "Fundamentals of Jurisprudence: An Ethnography of Judicial Decision Making in Informal Courts," see 66 N.C.L. Rev. 467 (1988).