North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

Defendant’s trial counsel, Teresa Smallwood, had notes which she said were from a conversation she had had with a key prosecution witness, and Smallwood cross-examined the witness about the purported conversation; subsequently, defendant moved for appropriate relief, arguing that Smallwood ...

Tagged with: MAR

A superior court judge erred in granting a pretrial motion to consolidate when he was not scheduled to preside over the trial of the consolidated case; nevertheless, the presiding judge corrected the error – he implicitly found that joinder was ...

Tagged with: pretrial

In a case involving a patient’s fall from an operating table, the Court of Appeals majority erred when it converted plaintiff’s claim from one of medical malpractice to one of ordinary negligence. We reverse and remand for the Court of ...

Tagged with: Medical Malpractice

For the reasons stated in State v. Curtis (Lawyers Weekly No. 010-067-18), we reverse and remand with instructions to vacate the dismissal of the driving while impaired charge against defendant. State v. Turner (Lawyers Weekly No. 010-070-18, 1 p.) (Per ...

Tagged with: dwi

An hour and a half’s possession, plus a two-month-old receipt, showed that defendant “kept” a vehicle; storing cocaine in the vehicle’s gas-cap compartment showed that defendant was “keeping” illegal drugs. We reverse the Court of Appeals’ decision, which reversed defendant’s ...

Tagged with: duration of time

Before plaintiff filed her medical malpractice complaint, her medical treatment and records had been reviewed by someone she expected to qualify as an expert; however, her certification pursuant to N.C. R. Civ. P. 9(j) only indicated that her treatment had ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice

Although the former version of G.S. § 15-1 appeared to require that an indictment or presentment be filed against a misdemeanant in order to toll the two-year statute of limitations, a citation was sufficient to toll the statute of limitations ...

Tagged with: dwi

Where the state presented no evidence that the satellite-based monitoring program is effective in protecting the public from sex offenders, ordering satellite-based monitoring of defendant violates his rights under the Fourth Amendment. We reverse the trial court’s order requiring defendant ...

Tagged with: search and seizure

Where defendant was charged with defrauding The Hartford Insurance Company, but where the state presented evidence only that defendant made fraudulent statements to Nationwide, the state failed to prove the crime for which defendant was indicted. We vacate defendant’s conviction ...

Tagged with: Insurance

Where defendant’s own testimony, as well as that of other eyewitnesses and video footage, showed that (1) defendant was waiting for victim Robert Noeth in the parking lot outside the Walmart in which defendant had just seen Robert, (2) defendant ...

Tagged with: Assaults