Even though the respondent-mother completed domestic violence victim counseling, since she thereafter prioritized her relationship with her abuser while falsely and repeatedly claiming the still-abusive relationship had ended, respondent did not make a reasonable effort to correct the issues that ...
Read More »Domestic Relations – Parent & Child – TPR – Failure to Correct Conditions – Domestic Violence
Domestic Relations – Parent & Child – TPR – No-Merit Brief – Homelessness & Mental Health Issues 
In this case involving a respondent-mother who allegedly was homeless and had unaddressed mental health issues, “Mary” has been in the petitioner-grandmother’s care since 2011. The trial court terminated respondent’s parental rights due to neglect and her failure to pay ...
Read More »Domestic Relations – Parent & Child – TPR – No-Merit Brief – Abandonment 
The petitioner-mother alleged that the respondent-father had not seen their daughter, “Ansley,” for two years—despite the fact that Ansley and the mother still lived in the same home which respondent had formerly occupied with them—and had paid no child support ...
Read More »Domestic Relations – Parent & Child – TPR – Hearing Delay – Mandamus 
G.S. § 7B-1109 requires that a hearing on a petition to terminate parental rights be held within 90 days. This statute was violated when 33 months elapsed between the filing of the TPR petition and the hearing on the petition. ...
Read More »Domestic Relations – Parent & Child – TPR – Future Neglect – Recent Plan Progress 
For the last four months of “Blake’s” 26 months in DSS custody, the respondent-mother made some minimal progress on her remediation plan: she had no positive drug screens. However, she did not sign a release of information for her treatment ...
Read More »Criminal Practice – Failure to sequester witnesses not reversible error 
Where a defendant argued that the trial judge failed to sequester co-defendant testifying witnesses from each other while they were held in the courthouse holding area, his claim was rejected because he did not complain at trial, there were limited ...
Read More »Criminal Practice – Sexual activity statute not applied extraterritorially 
Where the defendant was overseas on a Navy base when he used the internet to coerce a Virginia-based minor into sexual activity, his extraterritorially argument was rejected because the focus of the conduct and the child victim was in the ...
Read More »Criminal Practice – Convictions reinstated against Flynn associate 
Where the Turkish government communicated instructions through a Turkish businessman to an executive at the Flynn Intel Group who followed those instructions, his convictions for acting as an unregistered foreign agent and conspiring to do so were reinstated. Background A ...
Read More »Intellectual Property – Trademark Board appeal process clarified 
Where a party can appeal an initial decision of the Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to either the Federal Circuit or district court, and the Federal Circuit remands to the Trademark Board which issues a second ...
Read More »Administrative – Agency didn’t explain Clean Water certification denial 
Where the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality denied a Clean Water Act certification to a company building a natural gas pipeline, but did not explain why it disagreed with the hearing officer’s findings or why it denied the application, ...
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