North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

By SYLVIA ADCOCK, Staff Writer [email protected]   When an attorney ends up before the State Bar’s Disciplinary Hearing Commission, attorney/client privilege usually isn’t an issue. That’s because it’s the client who often brings grievance to light in the first place ...

Tagged with: discipline

You might think Danny Moody is alone at his desk, housed in a cavernous room on the first floor of the Supreme Court building. But you'd be wrong. He's surrounded by history. And history speaks to Danny Moody (pictured). Oil paintings of former justices silently look on. Books that speak of our state's legal past are stacked around him. The marble bust of a 19th-century jurist sits across the room, not far from an exhibit on the accomplishments of women that includes former Chief Justice Susie Sharp's license plate: "J-1."

Tagged with: Supreme Court

Barbara Jackson didn't plan on making history. She donned her black robes and went into the judicial chambers before an overflow crowd earlier this month, and by the time the investiture ceremony was over, North Carolina's Supreme Court was majority female. Sure, the history-making election in November that gave the General Assembly a Republican majority got a lot more attention. The goings-on in our co-equal branch of government that quietly operates a few blocks from the legislative building never get the same spotlight.

Tagged with: Diversity Supreme Court

It started out as a simple DWI arrest on the campus of Davidson College. Five years later, it's turned into a First Amendment case that could put into jeopardy the ability of many of North Carolina's private colleges and universities to have their own police forces. The case of State v. Yencer received coverage in the Chronicle of Higher Education, considered the paper of record in the world of higher education. Private college and university campuses in other states "are watching it very closely," said Hope Williams (pictured), president of the North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities, an advocacy group for the state's 36 private post-secondary schools.

Tagged with: Campus Police Constitutional Davidson College First Amendment

Watch the pop-ups. That's the word from the N.C. State Bar's Ethics Committee, which is looking into the use of live-chat services on attorney websites - specifically, whether the use of a live-chat button would violate Rule 7.3(a), which provides that an attorney may not solicit business by "in-person, live telephone or real-time electronic contact." A staff opinion discussed at Thursday's Ethics Committee meeting says that it's fine for a lawyer to use a live-chat support service, the kind that typically features a button accompanied by "Click here to chat live online."

Tagged with: Advertising Ethics Ethics Committee Internet Websites

An attorney with an employment-discrimination case will most likely take the case to the nearest county courthouse to be heard by a state judge. But just as likely, the defense counsel for the employer will have it removed to federal ...

Tagged with: 4th Circuit Age Discrimination Disability Discrimination discrimination Labor & Employment Race Discrimination Sex Discrimination venue

First the yellow jackets attacked. But that wasn't the worst part. A city of Raleigh employee who was stung 30 times while in the course of his work duties became lightheaded after the stings, and when he left work, he drove off the road and into a tree. The employee didn't remember the accident, and a police investigation found no skid marks and said he had not even applied the brakes before impact. So is the injury from the car crash - a fractured ankle - compensable? The N.C. Industrial Commission said yes, and in an unpublished opinion filed Jan. 4, the N.C. Court of Appeals upheld the ruling.

Tagged with: auto accident proximate cause Workers Compensation wreck

A 46-year-old Alexander County emergency medical services supervisor who was demoted when his team failed to meet a targeted response time has a triable case of age discrimination, a federal judge ruled late last month. The case, Fox v. Alexander County, has drawn national attention among labor lawyers because the plaintiff survived a summary-judgment motion from the employer - an unusual event in federal court. "It's pretty noteworthy," said the plaintiff's attorney, Joshua Van Kampen (pictured). "The employer-discrimination firms are very adept at getting these cases dismissed."

Tagged with: Age Discrimination discrimination discrimination claims employment Employment Law Labor & Employment summary judgment

Out of concern that more and more new attorneys don't know the basics of how to set up a practice and serve their clients, the N.C. State Bar is requiring new lawyers who have just passed the bar exam to take 12 hours of specialized CLE courses designed to teach them the fundamentals of practicing law and professionalism. "Back in the day, they got out of law school, were hired at a firm and had someone to mentor them," said Debra Holland, assistant director of the N.C. State Bar's CLE Board. "But with the economy, more new lawyers are hanging out their own shingle."

Tagged with: CLE N.C. State Bar NCBA

A McDowell County jury has awarded $130,000 to a woman who was dumped by her fiancé in a breach-of-contract-to-marry claim, a common-law tort that is rarely seen today. The case involved a young woman who worked in her older boyfriend's convenience stores. He asked her to marry him, she accepted, and he told her that they would eventually sell the convenience stores and she would never have to worry about money, according to the plaintiff's attorney, Steven Kropelnicki Jr. (pictured) of Asheville.

Tagged with: Breach of Fiduciary Duty Constructive Trust Contract