North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

  Parent’s right to counsel in termination proceedings where trial court failed to inquire of hired counsel’s efforts to notify parent of counsel’s motion to withdraw and where parent never expressly waived the assistance of any counsel, such that the ...

  Funds received from federal block grant programs were part of the state treasury and therefore subject to the legislature’s appropriations powers, which could divert the funds contrary to the spending priorities of the governor in applying for such funds. ...

  A loss of chance claim in the medical malpractice context does not comport with traditional negligence law where the claimed lost chance falls below the more-likely-than-not threshold. A loss of chance claim is also not a recognized cause of ...

  The trial court was statutorily obligated to accept a defendant’s tendered plea agreement, even though defendant maintained his innocence, where defendant had made an informed decision to plead guilty, there existed a factual basis to find defendant guilty, and ...

  Planning director’s letter identifying deficiencies in permit applicant’s application did not constitute a final determination that the county challenging the permit issuance was required to appeal or otherwise be bound to its contents. We reverse and remand for the ...

Where residents of Lumberton, North Carolina, alleged a railroad prevented the city from closing a dike across the railroad’s tracks, in contravention of a contract between the railroad and city, resulting in significant damage to their properties from Hurricanes Matthew ...

Where a defendant challenged his convictions stemming from his involvement with MS-13, the court joined other circuits in finding the Double Jeopardy Clause prohibits imposition of cumulative punishments for § 924(c) and § 924(j) convictions based on the same conduct. ...

  Although the trial court failed to use the word “willful” in its determination that the respondent-father had abandoned the child “Nicole,” the order as a whole makes clear that the trial court applied the proper willfulness standard. The trial ...

  Where the respondent-father’s biological child, “Ava,” had been in the custody of the Department of Social Services for nearly three years when the trial court entered its termination of parental rights (TPR) order, and where respondent had failed to ...

The administrative law judge erred by requiring objective evidence about the persistence and limiting effects of fibromyalgia on the claimant’s daily life. This error was compounded by the fact that objective evidence was present, but ignored. The record as a ...