Candidate Biography (submitted by campaign):

I am a native of Morganton, North Carolina, and have had my permanent residence in that community all of my life.  I attended the Burke County public schools, graduating from Freedom High School in 1974.  I received an A.B., magna cum laude, from Davidson College in 1978 and a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1981. 

After being admitted to the bar in North Carolina in 1981, I practiced law in Morganton with the firm of Byrd, Byrd, Ervin, Whisnant, McMahon and Ervin, P.A., and its predecessors from 1981 until 1999.  As a practicing attorney, I handled a wide variety of cases, including utility rate cases, personal injury cases, business disputes, and serious criminal cases.  While I was in private practice, I participated in numerous appeals to the North Carolina Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of North Carolina. 

In 1999, I took office as a member of the North Carolina Utilities Commission, which is a quasi-judicial body that is responsible for regulating the rates charged and service provided by investor-owned electric, natural gas, telecommunications, and water and sewer companies.  I am currently serving my second term as a member of the Utilities Commission.  As part of its work, the Utilities Commission conducts hearings, rules on evidentiary and other procedural issues, decides complex questions of law and fact, and issues detailed written orders that are subject to appeal to the appellate courts.

I am married to Mary Temple Ervin and have two children and two stepchildren.  I am a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Morganton, where I have served as a deacon and an elder.  I have also been active in various bar-related and charitable activities.

The law is the glue that holds our society together by providing the rules used to resolve disputes among our citizens.  The legal system cannot effectively perform this important dispute resolution function unless the decisions reached there are perceived as having been made in a fair, dispassionate, and even-handed manner.  Although the results obtained in the judicial system inevitably fail to satisfy everyone, it is possible for the system to function in such a way that all litigants believe that they have received a fair hearing.  As a result, it is vitally important for judges to carefully consider the facts of each case, to thoroughly review the relevant statutory provisions and court decisions, and to decide each case consistently with the applicable law.

A case in the Court of Appeals is an important event in the lives of the people involved.  The Court of Appeals is the last real opportunity that most litigants have to be heard in the North Carolina judicial system.  The decisions of the Court of Appeals also affect countless other cases across our State.  Although the General Assembly is the principal policymaking body in State government, the Court of Appeals has significant responsibility for implementing the legislature’s policy decisions in specific cases.  Thus, the Court of Appeals plays a uniquely important role in North Carolina’s court system.  The effectiveness with which the Court of Appeals performs this function is directly dependent on the manner in which it decides the cases on its docket.  If I am elected to the Court of Appeals, I will strive to decide each case on the merits and to base my decisions on a careful and conscientious review of the evidence, the statutes enacted by the General Assembly, and the prior decisions of the appellate courts.