The Clerk of Superior Court is an elected official responsible for performing several roles regarding the local administration of justice. The Clerk is elected in a partisan election for a four-year term and must be a resident of the county in which he or she is elected. The Clerk is responsible for all administrative, clerical and record-keeping functions of the district and superior court. In addition, the Clerk receives and disburses money collected each year from court fees and fines.
Unlike Clerks of Court in other states, the Clerk of Superior Court in North Carolina has numerous judicial functions as well. As judge of probate, the Clerk has exclusive original jurisdiction over matters relating to the probate of wills and the administration of estates, including appointing personal representatives, auditing the accounting of those representatives, and removing them from office if necessary. The Clerk also presides over many other legal matters including:
- adoptions,
- incompetency and guardianship proceedings,
- condemnation of private lands for public use,
- foreclosures,
- land partition proceedings,
- boundary disputes,
- name changes,
- and motor vehicle liens.
