In NC as in New York, plaintiff must provide a ceritificate of merit for a medical malpractice case. In NC, the question of whether a legal malpractice plaintiff who is suing over a lost medical malpractice case must provide yet another certification when the legal malpractice case is brought was open.
Plaintiff won in the intermediate Court of Appeals, with a determination that no new certificate had to be filed. Defendants appealed to the Supreme Court of NC, where an evenly divided panel neither affirmed nor reversed, leaving the Court of Appeals decision in place, without precedential value.