North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

  Although defendant argues that the trial court plainly erred when it admitted two photos into evidence, defendant fails to argue why this is an exceptional case or why this will seriously affect the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of ...

Where the trial court’s finding that a defendant encouraged a hospital patient to attack the plaintiff was based on its credibility determination of the witnesses, it was affirmed. But where the doctor’s decision regarding treatment was based on his professional ...

Officers sued for wrongful arrest in a case involving employee theft at a Walmart were correctly denied qualified immunity because the record did not provide an objectively reasonable belief in the probable cause required to justify an arrest. Background In ...

Arguments by a man convicted of cyberstalking that he was not competent to stand trial, that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction for sending threatening interstate communications and that there were errors in sentencing, were  all rejected. Background ...

A habeas court found the defendant’s counsel rendered ineffective assistance by misadvising him during plea negotiations, but this finding was improperly ignored by later reviewing courts. The case was remanded with instructions to grant the habeas petition. Background Shane Monroe ...

Where the sponsor of a PGA tournament accepted the terms of a policy that insured payouts for a hole-in-one at least 170 yards in distance, its claims that the insurer breached duties by failing to obtain a policy covering holes-in-one ...

Although the defendant argued the commonwealth violated his constitutional rights by failing to produce potentially exculpatory evidence, his petition for a successive habeas petition was denied because he could not demonstrate that newly discovered evidence would have resulted in a ...

Where a defendant’s “gross driver error” resulted in a fatal crash, an odor of alcohol was coming from his car and he was combative with first responders, there was probable cause to take blood for a toxicology analysis or, at ...

During the sentencing of a defendant for production and possession of child pornography, the judge’s reference to the possible impact of good-time credits on the length of the sentence was not inappropriate. Moreover, the 40-year sentence was not substantively unreasonable. ...

Although a petitioner argued his status as a merchant in the formal Honduran economy was a “particular social group” that qualified for asylum, the Board of Immigration Appeals, or BIA, did not err in following its precedent, which holds the ...