A civil litigant’s due process right to the assistance of retained counsel extends to depositions, and the trial court violated that right when it ordered that all depositions in this case be taken by “remote videoconferencing in separate locations from ...
Read More »Civil Practice — Discovery – Depositions – Remote-Only Order – Constitutional – Due Process – First Impression
Criminal Practice — Sex Offense with a Child – Photographic Evidence – Condoms & Dildo – Not Prejudicial 
The 12-year-old victim testified that, prior to the assault, defendant had shown him square plastic packets, winked at him, and told him not to tell the little kids. The trial court did not err in admitting photos of condoms in ...
Read More »Criminal Practice — Search & Seizure – Traffic Stop – Ongoing Investigation – Consent 
The car in which defendant was riding was stopped for speeding 47 mph in a 35-mph zone, and the traffic stop was extended when the officer smelled marijuana inside the car. Where (1) the officer had not yet issued a ...
Read More »Criminal Practice — Search & Seizure – Expectation of Privacy – After-the-Fact Consent – Locked Safe 
Although defendant did not own or lease the house in which a locked safe was found, and although he disclaimed any interest in the safe, the state nevertheless failed to show that defendant lacked an expectation of privacy. The evidence ...
Read More »Introducing North Carolina’s newest lawyers – Spring 2022 
North Carolina Lawyers Weekly would like to congratulate each of the bar applicants who passed the February 2022 North Carolina bar exam. The following names were provided by the North Carolina Board of Law Examiners to recognize those who passed ...
Tagged with: Bar Exam
Read More »Immigration – Applicant fails to show likelihood of torture in El Salvador 
Where the immigration judge or IJ, found that the threat of torture from MS-13, police and vigilante groups in El Salvador was less than 50%, both separately and in the aggregate, an applicant’s bid for protection under the Convention Against ...
Read More »Bankruptcy – Standard for Chapter 11 contempt is clarified 
Where the Supreme Court previously addressed the proper standard for holding a creditor in civil contempt for attempting to collect a debt that a Chapter 7 discharge order has immunized from collection, that rule also applied in a Chapter 11 ...
Read More »Bar announces new bankruptcy, child welfare specialists 
The following lawyers have met all of the certification requirements and were certified as specialists in their respective practice areas by the North Carolina State Bar Board of Legal Specialization on March 2-3, according to the board’s website. Bankruptcy Law ...
Read More »Environmental — SPCA – Failure to Plead Citation for Violation of Law – Standing – Dismissal with Prejudice 
The failure to plead that a defendant was cited for a legal or regulatory violation was fatal to standing to bring a claim under the Sedimentation Pollution Control Act, but the trial court was required to dismiss the claim without ...
Read More »Domestic Relations — Termination of Parental Rights – Statutory Grounds to Terminate – Sufficiency of Factual Findings – Willful Abandonment 
A parent’s parental rights were involuntarily terminated where the parent expressed a desire to sign over their parental rights, subsequently left the state, and engaged in criminal conduct that resulted in their incarceration, during which time the parent failed to ...
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