NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1973 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 47

SENATE BILL 123

 

 

AN ACT TO ALLOW SOLICITORS, ASSISTANT SOLICITORS, ACTING SOLICITORS, AND SOLICITORIAL DISTRICTS TO BE DESIGNATED BY TERMS UNDERSTANDABLE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  Article 9 of Chapter 7A of the General Statutes of North Carolina is amended by adding a new section to be designated as G.S. 7A-66.1 to read as follows:

"§ 7A-66.1.  Office of solicitor may be denominated as office of district attorney; 'solicitor and 'district attorney made interchangeable; solicitorial districts may be denominated 'judicial districts'; interchangeable use authorized in proceedings, documents, and quotations. — (a) The constitutional office of solicitor may be denominated as the office of 'district attorney' for all purposes, and the terms 'solicitor' and 'district attorney' shall be identical in meaning and interchangeable in use. All terms derived from or related to the term 'solicitor' may embody this denomination.

(b)        Every solicitorial district may be denominated as 'judicial district' for all purposes, and the terms 'solicitorial district' and 'judicial district' shall be identical in meaning and interchangeable in use.

(c)        The interchangeable use authorized in this section includes use in all forms of oral, written, visual, and other communication including:

(1)        Oaths of office;

(2)        Other oaths or orations required or permitted in court or official proceedings;

(3)        Ballots;

(4)        Statutes;

(5)        Regulations;

(6)        Ordinances;

(7)        Judgments and other court orders and records;

(8)        Opinions in cases;

(9)        Contracts;

(10)      Bylaws;

(11)      Charters;

(12)      Official commissions, orders of appointment, proclamations, executive orders, and other official papers or pronouncements of the Governor or any executive, legislative, or judicial official of the State or any of its subdivisions;

(13)      Official and unofficial letterheads;

(14)      Campaign advertisements;

(15)      Official and unofficial public notices; and

(16)      In all other contexts not enumerated.

The interchangeability authorized in this section extends to the privilege of substituting terminology in matter quoted in oral, written, and other modes of communication without making indication of such change, except where such change may result in a substantive misunderstanding. Reprints or certifications of the text of the Constitution of North Carolina made by the Secretary of State, however, must retain the original terminology and indicate in brackets beside the original terminology the appropriate alternative words."

Sec. 2.  The Michie Company or any successor or additional publisher of codifications of the Constitution, General Statutes, and rules of court of North Carolina is directed in reprinting or revising its editions, in consultation with the Department of Justice, to substitute where appropriate the terminology authorized in this act. Sections and subsections of codifications need not be reprinted in supplements solely to achieve the substitution of terminology hereby directed, but it is the intention of the General Assembly that such substitution of terminology be effected as amendments are made for other purposes and as recompiled volumes are issued. The wording of annotations need not be altered, but if the annotations to a section of a codification use "solicitor" or any related term with any frequency a note reflecting the interchangeability of terminology should be inserted in due course.

Sec. 3.  This act takes effect upon ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 5th day of March, 1973.