North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

Worker’s compensation law has a long and winding history in the North Carolina. The cases – which are difficult, emotional, and time-consuming – also become more complicated as the workplace changes and legal standards evolve. The majority of worker’s compensation case claims are dealt with on an administrative level. The more complex cases are handled via hearings before the Industrial Commission, created by the General Assembly in 1929 to administer the North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Act.

Tagged with: Workers Compensation

A plaintiff who suffered nerve damage during surgery can go forward with her case against a pair of doctors who treated her, the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled. A trial court had previously granted summary judgment to the defendants, saying there was no evidence of direct negligence.

Executions for capital crimes, once a common occurrence in North Carolina, have seen a dramatic slowdown in recent years. But the death penalty remains a hot-button topic, albeit one with an uncertain future. “The death penalty has been a part of North Carolina law since the state was a British colony,” says Jeffrey Welty, University of North Carolina professor of public law and government. “The first known execution by colonial authorities was the hanging of a Native American man in 1726.”

Tagged with: Execution

A recent verdict by a Union County jury found a group of doctors and a developer not liable for damages of nearly $3 million after a bank foreclosed on their commercial loan. CML-NC Waxhaw, LLC had purchased the loan with an “as is” disclaimer and notice that the loan had multiple problems associated with the previous lenders, the jury concluded.

Tagged with: Breach of Contract

A recent Court of Appeals case strayed into the realm of existential mindbenders with this question: If a man unloads the bullets from his gun before he holds up a store, is he still guilty of armed robbery? In October ...

Tagged with: Sidebar

A group of online hotel reservation companies can proceed with their suit against the North Carolina Department of Revenue and Durham County over a hotel occupancy tax the companies believe unfairly and unconstitutionally targeted their business. The case focuses on the state’s sales tax on the rental of hotel rooms, and Durham County’s “room occupancy tax” on hotel rooms within the county. The plaintiffs – Orbitz, Travelocity, Hotwire, and Travelscape – are considered “facilitators” under both of the laws in question.

Tagged with: taxes

A North Carolina Business Court decision focused on the taxability of a certain kind of bond income has some investors looking at a higher tax bite and their attorneys holding out hope that the decision won’t survive an appeal.

Tagged with: Bond Business Court taxes

Email etiquette is lacking in many companies. Recently NPR devoted a segment to how professionals may want to reconsider signing off with “x” and “o” or “love ya” on their work emails. (That last one is just plain creepy.) Now ...

Tagged with: email Sidebar

When introduced in court, evidence is typically seen as black and white, the inarguable facts of a criminal case. But as science has advanced over the last 25 years, attorneys have begun to focus more on the gray areas of forensic evidence.

“My client made me do it.” Let’s agree that’s not the best way to impress a court when you’ve violated the law and flirted with crossing the line of ethical appropriateness. When Asheville attorney Eugene W. Ellison’s client was injured ...

Tagged with: Sidebar