Issue

Juvenile abuse and neglect—unpreserved issues—analyzed on appellate review—improper

Summary

When reversing part of the Court of Appeals' decision vacating a neglect adjudication in a juvenile abuse and neglect case, the Supreme Court rejected the Court of Appeals' analysis of issues that the parties neither raised before the trial court nor addressed in their appellate briefs, thereby underscoring the well-settled rule that appellate courts may not "create an appeal" for an appellant by addressing issues that were never raised below. Further, the Court specifically rejected the analysis of whether the adjudication order constituted an "ultimatum" to "confess [to the abuse] or lose your children" that violated "marital privilege," where marital privilege did not apply in juvenile proceedings such as this one.

Summary from the North Carolina Reports digest (official subject index). Read the opinion →