Over what and whom do the Cherokee Courts preside?

The Cherokee Courts hear criminal, civil, domestic violence (civil and criminal), small claims, juvenile, traffic, Family Safety, child support and wellness court cases, with sessions nearly every day.

In short, through great effort, we at the Cherokee Courts have succeeded in making our system fully functional and have established ourselves as leaders among Indian Country court systems.

Notable aspects and accomplishments of the Cherokee Court

The Court is the only tribal court in the country to host Federal Central Violations Bureau (CVB) Court quarterly and houses a satellite federal probation office. The North Carolina State Bar Association must license all attorneys and judges practicing within the Cherokee Courts, and each defendant is afforded the right to a court-appointed attorney and all rights available in any other court in the country. Jury trials, with a jury pool containing non-Indians, are available for every criminal or civil matter.

The Cherokee Courts are one of only a handful of tribal courts to institute both the Tribal Law and Order Act (TLOA) enhanced sentencing and the Violence Against Women Act of 2013 (VAWA) allowing prosecution of non-Indians for certain domestic violence (DV) crimes. TLOA allows the Court to hand down sentences of up to three years for individual charges and up to nine years in combination, while VAWA gives the Court jurisdiction to hear DV crimes between intimate partners when the victim is a Tribal member residing on trust property and the defendant is non-Indian.