North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

Because the trial court’s findings of fact are copied wholesale from the DSS neglect petition, they are replete with recitations of statements, allegations, concerns, reports, and recollections of various persons, with no indication that the trial court weighed this evidence, ...

Tagged with: Parent and Child

Even though the respondent-mother stipulated that her child, “Charlie,” was neglected, did not receive proper care or supervision, and lived in an environment injurious to his welfare, these stipulations were invalid stipulations to conclusions of law. While the mother also ...

Tagged with: Parent and Child

Given the constitutional right at issue in termination-of-parental-rights cases, when appellate counsel files a no-merit brief but cannot find his client, we must consider such situations on a case-by-case basis. In this case, due to the exhaustive – but unsuccessful ...

Tagged with: parental rights

Where the evidence showed that the defendant-father had limited, irregular income, was unable to work, and had assets which – even if he sold his car – would have allowed him to pay only one of two purge amounts, and ...

Because father demonstrated an inability to parent the children, favored one child over the other, and lacked independence from his mother and grandmother, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in suspending father’s visitation rights. We affirm the trial ...

Tagged with: Neglect

Because the trial court’s findings of fact are copied wholesale from the DSS neglect petition, they are replete with recitations of statements, allegations, concerns, reports, and recollections of various persons, with no indication that the trial court weighed this evidence, ...

Tagged with: Parent and Child

Even though the respondent-mother stipulated that her child, “Charlie,” was neglected, did not receive proper care or supervision, and lived in an environment injurious to his welfare, these stipulations were invalid stipulations to conclusions of law. While the mother also ...

Tagged with: Parent and Child

The trial court’s Jan. 12, 2017, order (1) changed the permanent plan for “Rebecca” to adoption with a concurrent plan of reunification, (2) required DSS to proceed with a termination of parental rights action, and (3) specifically required DSS to ...

Tagged with: Parent and Child

On remand from a prior appeal, this court instructed the trial court to make findings of fact regarding the defendant-wife’s inheritance from her father. The trial court erred in its reconsideration of the post-separation inheritance – a distributional factor – ...

Tagged with: equitable distribution

Where the evidence supports the trial court’s finding that the defendant-husband could earn $100,000 per year, and considering the rent he receives for his real property, we reject the husband’s argument that the trial court’s alimony award is an abuse ...

Tagged with: Alimony