Arbitration agreement ruled to be binding, even though nobody signed it 
A recent North Carolina Business Court decision to enforce arbitration, despite the fact neither party to the suit ever signed the contract containing the clause, has left lawyers wondering what impact the decision will have on contract law in the future.
Top Legal News
- Defensible deletion, cost-shifting and the use of clawback agreements Ever-evolving and constantly growing, electronic discovery presents a variety of challenges for litigators.
- Litigation finance is growing, but how comfortable should lawyers and investors be? There are multiple ways of looking at any piece of complex business litigation. Where a law firm may see a strong legal claim that could bring in a massive recovery and a big fee, a client company may see a risky, expensive proposition whose costs could run into the millions of dollars. But investment firms may see the case as yet something else—an attractive money-making opportunity.
- Loopholes could neutralize Senate’s building design bill A bill that would prevent cities and counties from regulating things like the color of a new house appears to be close to passage after it sailed through the state House by a 98-18 margin. But land use attorneys say they don’t expect any surge in litigation between developers and local governments because the bill contains a loophole that you could fit a house through.
2012 Women of Justice awards
- Women of Justice 2012: A letter from the Publisher Welcome to the inaugural class of the North Carolina Women of Justice Award honorees. This is the first such award program we’ve produced at North Carolina Lawyers Weekly and we are privileged to pay tribute to these 25 exceptional women.
2012 LEADERS IN THE LAW AWARDS
- Leaders in the Law Awards: A letter from the publisher We honor 25 lawyers who exemplify the best qualities of the profession. They embrace the noblest ideals of representation. They are your partners, your adversaries, your mentors, your friends. They are North Carolina Lawyers Weekly’s 2012 Leaders in the Law.
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Most Important Opinions
- Tort/Negligence – STCA – Schools & School Boards – Bus/Van Collision – Right of Way – Bus Driver’s Lookout
Bartlett v. Wayne County Board of Education Plaintiffs contend that the majority of eyewitnesses in this case testified that the responding officer’s diagram depicting the accident scene was accurate, that the diagram demonstrates plaintiffs’ “van had to have been almost directly in front of the bus at the time [the bus driver] started her turn,” and that this evidence conclusively established that the bus driver failed to yield the right-of-way to plaintiffs’ van.
- Taxation – State Income — U.S. Treasury Bonds – Market Discount Income – First Impression — Interest
Fidelity Bank v. North Carolina Department of Revenue Even though the N.C. Revenue Act uses the Internal Revenue Code to determine state net income, and even though the Code treats “market discount income” on U.S. Treasury bonds as interest for purposes of the Code, under the N.C. Revenue Act market discount income on U.S. Treasury bonds is treated as income rather than interest.
- Contract – Forum Selection Clause – Arbitration – Labor & Employment
Apex Tool Group, LLC v. Ingersoll-Rand Co. Neither plaintiff nor the individual defendants are Texas residents; nevertheless, each of the individual defendants’ employment agreements includes an unambiguous and mandatory forum selection clause, which says any lawsuit involving the agreement must be brought in Harris County, Texas. The employment agreements were entered into by plaintiff’s predecessor and the individual defendants, who apparently did not live in Texas when they entered into the contracts and thus apparently anticipated interstate travel in the event of a trial.
