North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

Injured workers in North Carolina who were previously limited to just 300 weeks of workers’ compensation benefits will now be able to collect for up to 500 weeks. But the extra level of compensation comes at a price, said Greensboro attorney Dan Deuterman. The new law, passed by the 2011 Legislature and signed by Gov. Bev Perdue, increases from 300 to 500 the number of weeks for which an injured worker can collect partial disability benefits. But the law also caps total disability benefits at 500 weeks.

Tagged with: Workers Compensation

While efforts to require all employers to use the E-Verify database to check immigration and work authorization status for all workers have resurfaced at the federal level, North Carolina lawmakers are moving ahead with their own versions of immigration reform. The result is a legal headache for employers in some industries, particularly meat processing plants. North Carolina’s House of Representatives earlier this month approved House Bill 36, which expanded the state’s E-Verify requirements. State agencies already have to use the database to check employment status; now the bill would require the same of local governments, companies with government contracts and businesses with 25 or more workers. At press time the bill had not yet passed in the Senate.

Tagged with: immigration

When it comes to marketing his law firm, Ken Harrell, managing partner of the Joye Law Firm, has tried just about everything. Some campaigns have worked well; others have failed miserably. The trick to making it work is simple, though, says Harrell: Have a lot of money, and know when it’s time to move on to the next idea. The firm advertises its bread-and-butter personal injury practice everywhere — on television, on billboards, in the Yellow Pages and on the Internet.

Tagged with: legal marketing marketing

When J. Stott Matthews reflects on the “good old days” of his career, he doesn’t have to look back too far. It was only a few years ago when, if he was helping a lawyer-client track down electronic data during ...

Sebastian V. Grassi has the same worries as many of his clients, the parents of children with special needs. He advises them about how to answer the tough questions: How does this family manage tax planning? How do they coordinate ...

In the last six months, Robert McCormick Davies’ lender clients have been calling him with a question they never thought they’d have to ask: Are we on the hook to become a real estate developer? What’s happened, said Davies, from ...

Business owners know that a bankruptcy is not necessarily the end of the world. And many of them expect to emerge from bankruptcy financially solvent, with viable companies and sensible business plans. Unfortunately, their customers, suppliers, investors and the public ...