By Nathan Ham
A new statewide program in North Carolina went live last week, allowing for people who have upcoming court dates to have email or text message reminders sent to them.
Once a person subscribes to this service, they are then notified of court date changes and notified of upcoming court dates, seven days before and one day before their respective date.
According to Watauga County Clerk of Court Diane Cornett Deal, all a person has to have to sign up for this service is to know what their case number is.
“You have to have your case number to be able to receive these notifications. You can call us at the courthouse and we can provide you with that number,” Deal said.
Deal said that if you have multiple court cases coming up, you can sign up for alerts for both of those, you just have to enter them separately online and have the case number for each one.
As a reminder, these notifications are strictly for convenience and not for legal notice. Therefore, each person is responsible for appearing in court whether they have received an email or text message notice.
The goal for this service is to help people avoid the added charges and fines associated with missing a court date.
To sign up for these alerts and see what other online services are available, visit the North Carolina Courts website at www.nccourts.gov/services.