North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

Even if G.S. § 8-53, which allows a judge to compel disclosure of confidential medical information “if in [the judge’s] opinion disclosure is necessary to a proper administration of justice,” was not a constitutional method for law enforcement to obtain ...

Once his Miranda rights were read to him during custodial police interrogation, defendant said, “I’ll talk to you but I want a lawyer with it and I don’t have the money for one.” Given the ambiguity of defendant’s statement, police ...

At the time that defendant was stopped for a misplaced renewal sticker violation, there was no regulation directing her where to place the sticker. Nevertheless, the instructions on her registration card instructed her to place the sticker on the upper ...

Despite being on notice that DSS and the guardian ad litem were recommending that the trial court change the primary permanent plan for “Jimmy” and “Lola” from reunification to guardianship, the respondent-father failed to assert before the trial court his ...

not preclude the court from determining that termination of respondent’s parental rights was in “Scott’s” best interests. The trial court’s findings demonstrate that it considered the dispositional factors set forth in G.S. § 7B-1110(a) and performed a reasoned analysis weighing ...

Even if the respondent-mother – who lived in Ohio – received only five days’ notice of the exact date the termination-of-parental-rights hearing was scheduled to occur (February 10, 2021), since she had known for months that the hearing would occur ...

The primary programmatic purpose of the checking station at which defendant was stopped was to check driver’s licenses, and the trial court’s unchallenged findings of fact show that all three prongs of Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47 (1979), were ...

The respondent-father does not argue that he had any contact with “Becky” in the six months before the petitioner-mother filed a petition to terminate respondent’s parental rights; instead, respondent contends he had no way to contact or locate Becky. However, ...

following the case plan designed to address the issues that led to Brian’s removal: domestic violence, substance abuse, mental health, stability, parenting, employment and medical care for Brian. Furthermore, respondent’s therapist testified that respondent was not capable of parenting, and ...

Although this termination-of-parental-rights case was already outside its 90-day window, since (1) the respondent-father sought just a few days’ continuance until a Covid-19-related lockdown at his West Virginia prison was lifted, (2) his testimony was relevant to many of the ...