What is an interlocutory appeal?

• A. No appeal allowed
• B. Automatic appeal of all orders
• C. An appeal of a final judgment only
• D. An appeal of an interlocutory order under limited circumstances, often requiring permission

Answer: (D)

Interlocutory appeals deal with nonfinal orders—the judge’s rulings on things that don’t conclude the entire case. In North Carolina practice, you normally must wait for a final judgment to appeal, but there are carved-out situations where you can seek immediate review of a nonfinal order. Those are limited and not automatic; you typically need permission (leave) from the trial court or the appellate court, or a statutory right to appeal that exact kind of order.

So the correct idea is that you can appeal an interlocutory order only under restricted circumstances, and you often must obtain permission to do so. The other notions—no appeal at all, automatic appeal of every order, or appeal only of final judgments—don’t fit the real-world rule, since there are indeed narrow opportunities to appeal nonfinal rulings, but they are not automatic and are not universal.