North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
Even though the trial court’s order placed custody of “Dustin” with his maternal grandparents, the order failed to include a primary or secondary plan in accordance with G.S. § 7B-906.2(b). We reverse and remand to the trial court for entry ...
Read More »Domestic Relations – Parent & Child – Permanent Plan
Domestic Relations – Parent & Child – Custody & Visitation – Constitutional – Visitation Denial 
Before the trial court could completely deny visitation to the defendant-mother, the trial court was required to make findings – based on clear, cogent and convincing evidence – that the mother had forfeited her parental visitation rights. We affirm the ...
Read More »Domestic Relations – Alimony – Marital Misconduct – Adultery – Alimony Amount & Duration
Even though there is no direct evidence that the plaintiff-husband committed adultery, there was sufficient circumstantial evidence: (1) prior to the parties’ separation, the husband began to repeat suspicious behaviors he had exhibited in 2011 when he had a prior ...
Read More »Domestic Relations – Parent & Child – Support – Contempt – Ability to Pay
The record is devoid of evidence of the defendant-mother’s ability to pay the amount of child support she had been ordered to pay or to purge that amount at the time of the hearing; therefore, the trial court’s finding of ...
Read More »Domestic Relations – Responsible Individuals List – Constitutional – Jury Trial – Civil Practice – Appeals
A child was placed with petitioner and then removed amid allegations of abuse; petitioner’s name was then added to the Responsible Individuals List (RIL). According to G.S. § 7B-323(b), in this action concerning petitioner’s placement on the RIL and ...
Read More »Domestic Relations – Parent & Child – Termination of Parental Rights – Appeals – No-Merit Brief – Court’s Review
N.C. R. App. P. 3.1(d) includes most of the steps in an Anders no-merit review but stops short of counsel’s motion to withdraw and the court’s independent review of the record; consequently, when counsel files a no-merit brief but the ...
Read More »Domestic Relations – Divorce – Equitable Distribution – Unequal Distribution – Valuation of Marital Property
Where plaintiff acknowledged that defendant was solely responsible for the mortgage on the former marital residence, had maintained and improved the property since the parties’ separation, and the property had diminished in value and would be difficult to sell, the ...
Read More »Domestic Relations – Child Support – Calculation of Income – Child Support Guidelines – Gifts as Income
Trial court was not required to find “bad faith” by parent where it did not impute income to parent but instead treated substantial, recurring gifts from parent’s parents as income to parent. We find no abuse of discretion by the ...
Read More »Criminal Practice – Malicious Conduct by Prisoner – Jury Instructions – Defense of Accident – Unintentional Conduct
The trial court had a duty to instruct the jury on defense of accident where a substantive feature of defendant’s case was that his spitting upon of a law enforcement officer was unintentionally caused by a coughing fit, but its ...
Read More »Domestic Relations – DVPO – Renewal Motion – Ex Parte Order
Contrary to defendant’s argument, plaintiff was not required to file her motion to renew her domestic violence protective order within one year of receiving an ex parte DVPO; rather, she correctly moved to renew within one year of receiving a ...
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