North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

The statute pursuant to which defendant pled guilty was thereafter ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. Although defendant’s plea agreement waived his right to contest his conviction except in situations not present here, since the conduct to which he ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

For a year and 12 days in the midst of petitioner’s life sentence for two murders, South Carolina law would have allowed for the possibility of parole in petitioner’s case; however, that law was repealed well before it could have ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

In this case arising out of the sale of a business, the trial court held that the plaintiff-buyer’s fraud and misrepresentation claims against the defendant-agent were collaterally estopped by a bankruptcy court dismissal of the same claims against the defendant-seller. ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice

Plaintiffs’ decedent (Decedent) was a graduate student who would have been leaving defendant’s employ and returning to school in August 2018, had he not died while working for defendant in July. The wages Decedent earned while working for defendant would ...

Tagged with: Workers’ Compensation

In this case arising from plaintiff’s injury when shelving in defendant’s store fell on him, the pro se plaintiff initially demanded a jury trial. However, he waived that right by participating in a bench trial without bringing his jury-trial demand ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice

Even though plaintiff did not seek a domestic violence protective order (DVPO) until July, when defendant’s report to her employer that she had released his medical information caused her to lose her job, since there was no dispute that defendant ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations

Where the UPS “Proof of Delivery” receipt says the process package was received by “MARTINAZ” at the address provided by plaintiff, and where defendant Tolentino submitted (1) his own affidavit averring that he no longer lived at that address when ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice

The trial court should have determined the defendant-partnership’s assets and liabilities – including the values of its shellfish bottom leases – before distributing partnership property to the partners. We reverse the trial court’s order and remand for further proceedings. Although ...

Tagged with: Partnerships

At defendant’s attempted-murder trial, the state moved to close the courtroom during two witnesses’ testimony, and the trial court granted the motion without using the four-part test set out in Waller v. Georgia, 467 U.S. 39 (1984). The trial court’s ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice

On remand from a prior appeal, defendant’s sentence for possession of a stolen motor vehicle and attempted identity theft was revisited, and defendant appeals again, this time arguing the trial court erred in failing to hear from her or to ...

Tagged with: Criminal Practice