Senate Bill 847 Summary

• Codifies court staffing reductions: Permanently reduces the minimum number of magistrates and full-time assistant district attorneys in various North Carolina counties and prosecutorial districts to reflect reductions made under prior law.

• Authorizes printing of drafters' comments: Allows the revisor of statutes to print explanatory comments for three 2011 session laws (S.L. 2011-339, 2011-341, and 2011-344) where this authorization was inadvertently omitted.

• Makes numerous technical corrections: Fixes reference errors, spelling mistakes, cross-citation errors, and statutory numbering inconsistencies throughout the General Statutes (examples: correcting "principle" to "principal," updating obsolete statute citations, fixing internal references).

• Updates departmental references: Changes references to the defunct "Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention" and "Department of Crime Control and Public Safety" to the "Department of Public Safety" to reflect 2011 reorganization.

• Contains substantive policy changes: Includes changes to court procedures (mandatory mediation for citizen-initiated misdemeanor warrants), senior resident superior court judge selection (seniority-based instead of appointive), marriage solemnization authority expansion, and various licensing/professional regulation updates.