North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

BY BRIAN MOLDE Every major car insurance company in the United States now has what is referred to as a “usage-based insurance” (UBI) program. That includes Allstate (“Drivewise”), State Farm (“Drive Safe and Save”), GEICO (“DriveEasy”), Progressive (“Snapshot”), USAA (“SafePilot”), ...

Tagged with: UBI

BY MARIA VARGAS and ASHLEY JOHNSON Vocational services have historically been utilized by insurance companies and the defense in workers’ compensation system. However, now more than ever, it is incumbent on the plaintiff to demonstrate their case through the disability ...

Tagged with: Vocational Rehabilitation

By Shane R. Goodrich On Jan. 12, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a final rule in which it adopted a balancing test to determine the joint employer status of an employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal ...

Tagged with: employer test

BY JULIE CAMPANINI BridgeTower Media Newswires It is no secret to defendants that jurors expect products to be safe and that companies that fail to follow their own policies are vulnerable. A trend in litigation is to move safety to ...

Tagged with: jurors

By Charlie Davis and Chalk Broughton The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the SECURE Act), signed into law by President Trump and became effective Jan. 1, has significantly altered the estate planning landscape for qualified ...

Tagged with: Retirement

I recently received a text from a lawyer friend telling me she wants to take hip-hop classes. “But I’m afraid I’ll make a fool of myself,” she said. As with many other attorneys, my friend regularly works 60+ hour weeks. ...

Tagged with: hobby

By Erin K. Higgins and Thomas E. Peisch Monday morning for a firm’s managing partner brings a request from one of his partners for a sit-down. This is followed by an announcement from the partner that she is leaving the ...

Tagged with: aba

BY JOSH VAN KAMPEN and LANA TIGRI If you ask your neighbor whether it’s legal to fire a worker because he’s gay, you’ll get an unequivocal response—employers can’t do that. And if you consult public polling on the issue, there ...

Tagged with: LGBT

The great P.G. Wodehouse had a character who sought privacy. Unfortunately, by a series of events, “She couldn’t have had much less privacy if she had been running a snack bar on a racecourse.” Most attorneys are analogously placed, as ...

Tagged with: Technology

On Jan. 7, the Court of Appeals issued a decision that could have far-reaching implications for imposing liability against real estate developers and other parties in premises liability and construction accident cases. The opinion in Copeland v. Crescent Communities, LLC ...

Tagged with: Copeland