.0902 Annual Membership Fee

If a judicial district bar elects to assess an annual membership fee from its active members pursuant to N.C.G.S. §84-18.1(b), the following procedures shall apply:

(a) Notice to State Bar. The judicial district bar shall notify the North Carolina State Bar of its election to assess an annual membership fee each year at least thirty days prior to mailing to its members the first invoice therefore, specifying the amount of the annual membership fee, the date after which payment will be delinquent, and the amount of any late fee for delinquent payment.

(b) Accounting to State Bar. No later than thirty days after the end of the judicial district bar's fiscal year, the judicial district bar shall provide the North Carolina State Bar with an accounting of the annual membership fees it collected during such judicial district bar's fiscal year.

(c) Delinquency Date. The date upon which the annual membership fee shall be delinquent if not paid shall be not later than ninety days after, and not sooner than thirty days after, the date of the first invoice for the annual membership fee.  The delinquency date shall be stated on the invoice and the invoice shall advise each member that failure to pay the annual membership fee must be reported to the North Carolina State Bar and may result in suspension of the member's license to practice law.

(d) Late Fee. Each judicial district bar may impose, but shall not be required, to impose a late fee of any amount not to exceed fifteen dollars ($15.00) for non-payment of the annual membership fee on or before the stated delinquency date.

(e) Members Subject to Assessment. Only those lawyers who are active members of a judicial district bar may be assessed an annual membership fee.

(f) Members Exempt from Assessment.

(1)A person licensed to practice law in North Carolina for the first time by examination is not liable for judicial district bar membership fees during the year in which the person is admitted;

(2)A person licensed to practice law in North Carolina serving in the United States Armed Forces, whether in a legal or nonlegal capacity, is exempt from judicial district bar membership fees for any year in which the member serves some portion thereof on full-time active duty in military service;

(3)A lawyer who joins a judicial district bar after the beginning of its fiscal year is exempt from the obligation to pay the annual membership fee for that fiscal year only if the lawyer can demonstrate that he or she previously paid an annual membership fee to another judicial district bar with a fiscal year that runs coterminously, for a period of three (3) months or more, with the fiscal year of the lawyer’s new judicial district bar.

(g) Hardship Waivers. A judicial district bar may not grant any waiver from the obligation to pay the judicial district bar's annual membership fee. A judicial district bar may waive the late fee upon a showing of good cause.

(h) Reporting Delinquent Members to State Bar. Three to six months after the delinquency date for the annual membership fee, the judicial district bar shall report to the North Carolina State Bar all of its members who have not paid the annual membership fee or any late fee.

History Note: Statutory Authority G.S. 84-18.1; 84-23

Adopted by the Supreme Court December 20, 2000

Amendments Approved by the Supreme Court: March 6, 2008; April 10, 2014; March 16, 2017