Certified question

These cases typically arise when the court before which litigation is actually pending is required to decide a matter that turns on the law of another state or jurisdiction.

At one time, these two were separate and parallel legal systems, differing in procedure and the sort of case each had primary jurisdiction over.

[5] In 1967, a Uniform Act was first proposed to establish a standard procedure for certified questions.

In Lehman Bros. v. Schein, the Supreme Court praised the certified question procedure as helping to build a cooperative judicial federalism.

[7] Only the state supreme court of North Carolina lacks a certification process.

In some of those states, the power to issue rulings on certified questions has been granted to the courts by constitutional amendment.

The certificate shall contain a statement of the nature of the case and the facts on which the question or proposition of law arises.