# North Carolina Rule 9(j) Record Review > Page-cited record review for North Carolina Rule 9(j) certifications — the records reasonably available reviewed in full before the complaint is pleaded. Canonical page: https://medrecords.ai/solutions/north-carolina-certificate-of-merit/ --- NewWe now read the actual MRI and CT imaging — not just the radiologist's 1-page report. [See how →](https://medrecords.ai/product/imaging/) [Home](https://medrecords.ai/) ›[Solutions](https://medrecords.ai/solutions/) › — North Carolina Rule 9(j) NORTH CAROLINA CERTIFICATE OF MERIT RECORD REVIEW ## Rule 9(j) is pleaded in the complaint. There is no cure after the fact. North Carolina certificate of merit record review services prepare the page-cited record a reviewing expert reads before a complaint is pleaded under Rule 9(j). Every encounter and finding is indexed to its source page, so the certification that the records reasonably available were reviewed describes something that actually happened. [Test a file ](https://medrecords.ai/test-a-file/?src=north-carolina-certificate-of-merit) [Book a demo](https://medrecords.ai/demo/) Click any row → the source page it cites Record review · Case #IME-4812 documented Adams, Timothy · reasonably available record set 342 pp / 2 packets received logged 11 duplicate pages removed free p.140 — wrong patient quarantined Pages 342 Documents 27 Cited 100% ### The rule certifies a review. So the review has to be real. We do not build for a case type until we can name the standard that defines a correct output and the person who grades the file against it. In merit screening, both are written into the rule itself. The standard and the referee The rulebook - N.C. R. Civ. P. 9(j), which requires the complaint to assert that the medical care and all medical records pertaining to the alleged negligence reasonably available to the plaintiff were reviewed - N.C. R. Civ. P. 9(j)(1), under which the reviewer must be a person reasonably expected to qualify as an expert witness and willing to testify that the care did not comply with the applicable standard of care - N.C. R. Civ. P. 9(j), whose final paragraph allows a 120-day extension of the statute of limitations to comply with the certification requirement - N.C. Gen. Stat. §1A-1, which contains the Rules of Civil Procedure The referee - The trial court on a motion to dismiss, where a claim meeting the statutory definition of medical malpractice and lacking the certification is subject to dismissal - The North Carolina appellate courts, which have held there is no discretion to excuse a failure to certify, while allowing amendment where the review preceded the original complaint - The reviewing expert, who has to be willing to testify, not merely to have looked Reviewer hours reading every record reasonably available before a word is pleaded Flat 10¢/page here, duplicates free Record review · Case #IME-4812 cited 100% Packet — 342 pp / 2 packets · 11 deduplicated — logged Encounter chronology — Built from the produced record — cited Findings and imaging — Each result at its source page — cited Records referenced, not produced — Named in the chart, absent from the file — flagged Review delivered · cited 100% · no standard-of-care opinion offered How it works ### 3 steps between the records and the pleading. 01 #### Send the record set Every record reasonably available to you — hospital charts, office notes, imaging and operative reports, nursing records — in any format. 02 #### We return the review, page-cited The encounter chronology, findings and documented course of treatment, each line citing the page it came from, with referenced-but-absent records flagged. 03 #### Your expert reviews and counsel pleads Whether the care complied with the applicable standard is the reviewing expert's opinion, and the Rule 9(j) certification is counsel's pleading. The boundary, in writing ### A record review, never a Rule 9(j) certification. We index and cite what the record documents. We do not assess whether the care complied with the applicable standard of care, decide whether a reviewer would qualify as an expert, or make the certification Rule 9(j) requires. The certification is counsel's, resting on a reviewing expert's willingness to testify. Rule 9(j) turns on the records reasonably available to the plaintiff, so what the file is missing matters as much as what it holds. Records referenced in the chart but never produced are flagged rather than passed over. Audit trail · Case #IME-4812 exportable 08:12 — Packet received · 342 pp / 2 packets — system 08:31 — 11 pages deduplicated — system 08:44 — p.140 flagged — wrong patient — system 08:54 — Record review complete · review complete · chronology cited · cited 100% — system 09:20 — Record review reviewed · citations verified — reviewer 09:26 — Record review exported · complaint pleaded and filed off-platform — reviewer Every access logged · file deleted 30 days after delivery Why Medrecords AI ### The rules the platform never breaks. EVERY LINE CITED CASE #IME-4812 · ADAMS, T. 342 pp 2/14 — ER visit, right knee p.4 4/18 — arthroscopic surgery p.61 p.140 — wrong patient quarantined Medrecords AI Read every page · cite every line #### HIPAA, under a signed BAA Every file is handled under our Business Associate Agreement, from the first byte. #### Never trains a model Your records are never used to train any AI model — ours or anyone else's. #### Every line cited If we can't cite it, we don't say it. Every sentence links to its source page. #### Deleted after delivery Files are deleted 30 days after delivery, with a full audit log of every access. Powered by the platform ### 4 capabilities behind every record review. The record review is one deliverable of the same platform that reads, sorts, and cites the whole record. [ #### Medical Records OCR Every page read in full — hospital charts, office notes, nursing flowsheets, handwritten records — nothing skipped, nothing guessed. IN ACTION · 342 pp / 2 packets → 27 documents, read in full ](https://medrecords.ai/product/ocr/) [ #### Medical Chronology The course of care builds itself into one timeline, so the reviewing expert reads a sequence rather than a stack. IN ACTION · first presentation → injury → current treatment, one continuous timeline ](https://medrecords.ai/product/chronology/) [ #### Verifiable AI Citations If we can't cite it, we don't say it. Every line of the review links to the page range behind it. IN ACTION · review → cited 100% ](https://medrecords.ai/product/citations/) [ #### Medical Summary Reports The review formats straight into the reviewer's working file — your template, your letterhead. IN ACTION · record review → certification-ready ](https://medrecords.ai/product/summaries/) FAQ ### North Carolina Rule 9(j), answered. No. The certification is pleaded in the complaint by counsel, and it rests on review by a person reasonably expected to qualify as an expert witness who is willing to testify that the care did not comply with the standard. We prepare the page-cited record review behind it. North Carolina courts have held that a court has no discretion to excuse a failure to comply. Amendment has been allowed where the expert review and certification actually occurred before the original complaint was filed, which puts the weight on when the file was read. The final paragraph of Rule 9(j) allows a 120-day extension of the statute of limitations to comply with the certification requirement. It buys reading time, which is precisely the constraint. No. Medrecords AI does not retrieve records from providers or facilities. You bring the records you already have — review starts in minutes from upload. Retrieval vendors take days; you can keep yours and still cut the review to minutes. That is a legal question for counsel on the facts of the case. What the review does is make the boundary visible: every record produced is indexed and cited, and every record the chart references but does not contain is flagged. ### Send one file. We'll tell you what we can read. No obligation. If the case type is buildable we'll scope it; if it isn't, we'll say so. [Test a file ](https://medrecords.ai/test-a-file/?src=north-carolina-certificate-of-merit) [Book a demo](https://medrecords.ai/demo/) [See every case type we process →](https://medrecords.ai/solutions/case-types/)