North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

A lawsuit brought by a woman who was one of perhaps a half-million people exposed to cancer-causing pollutants and contaminants in drinking and bathwater at Camp Lejeune has withstood a salvo of dismissal motions filed by the government. But now a new motion is pending. The plaintiff, Laura J. Jones of Iowa, lived with her husband, a marine, at Camp Lejeune from 1980 to 1983. In 2003 Jones was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. She didn't learn about problems with Camp Lejeune's water supply until 2005.

Tagged with: Camp Lejeune Cancer Pollution subject-matter jurisdiction U.S. District Court

Court of Appeals Judge Cressie Thigpen Jr. is maintaining his lead over challenger Doug McCullough as workers at county elections boards across the state continue to count second- and third-place votes to determine the winner of the seat that went up for grabs when Judge James A. Wynn Jr. was confirmed to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. As of Thursday evening, elections officials in 52 of North Carolina's 100 counties had completed their counting. But state elections board officials said they didn't have a good breakdown on which counties were reporting, and it would be impossible to project a winner.

Tagged with: Court of Appeals Instant runoff Judicial Elections

A federal jury in Winston-Salem has returned a verdict of nearly $13 million against pharmaceutical giant Novartis, saying the company failed to adequately warn patients and doctors about the risks of taking the bone-strengthening drugs Zometa and Aredia. The estate of Rita Fussman of Chapel Hill had sued Novartis after Fussman came down with what at first appeared to be a mysterious jaw disease after she had been taking the drugs for several years. Fussman discovered her complications with the drug when she had a CT scan on her jaw. "The guy said, ‘You have exposed bone in your mouth,'" said Vernon Glenn (pictured) of Winston-Salem, a second-chair attorney for Fussman.

Tagged with: Failure to Warn Pharmaceutical

A Jack Russell terrier that died due to the negligence of the N.C. State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital had no intrinsic value to its devoted owners, a deputy commissioner for the N.C. Industrial Commission has ruled. Deputy Commissioner George T. Glenn II awarded only the $2,755 in veterinary bills that were presented to the couple after their 12-year-old dog died in the intensive-care unit of the hospital, saying that the plaintiffs had failed to prove by the greater weight of the evidence that the dog had any intrinsic value.

Tagged with: Animal Law Damages Industrial Commission Negligence

Currently, 784 North Carolina attorneys are certified specialists out of the 19,000 active lawyers who are eligible. The prospect of an exam does indeed play a part in an attorney's decision to get certified. Dan Pope, a workers' compensation attorney in Raleigh who was certified as a specialist last year, said the exam "was like one of those law school exams you can't stop thinking about."

Tagged with: N.C. State Bar

Charlotte's sister city is Arequipa, Peru. As sisters go, it is anything but the Queen City's twin. With a population approaching 800,000, North Carolina's banking and finance hub is home to skyscrapers, million-dollar condos and swanky mansions and estates fringed with parks and greenways linking neighborhoods with upscale shopping and dining. Compare that to the Alto Cayma settlement on a windswept perch at over 7,500 feet in the Andean highlands on the fringes of Arequipa. It is short on resources, short on opportunities for its more than 30,000 residents and, some N.C. lawyers say, short on hope. Those same lawyers are trying to change that.

Tagged with: Charlotte

The street where North Carolina's two appellate court buildings sit in calm repose is only a few blocks away from the Wake County courthouse, where defendants and witnesses gather on the front steps outside. But although the attorneys and judges inside each building are after the same result - justice and advocacy - they are worlds apart. Appellate work is very different from other types of advocacy, said Elizabeth Scherer (pictured), an attorney with Smith Moore Leatherwood who is on the committee that is developing the requirements for the new appellate specialty.

Tagged with: Appellate Courts N.C. State Bar

The city of Charlotte, Transit Management of Charlotte and city bus driver Dennis W. Napier argued that Lynda Springs' progressive multiple sclerosis would have eventually rendered her helpless. So when Springs lost the use of her right arm and shoulder after the bus Napier was driving rear-ended Springs' van at an intersection, the city, TMOC and Napier denied responsibility for her permanent injuries. The impact broke the back of Springs' wheelchair and thrust her body into the front of the bus, said her attorney, Thomas L. Odom (pictured).

Tagged with: auto accident Bus Expert Testimony motor vehicle

You've seen them for sale at convenience stores and gas stations - those tabloid-size papers that feature the confused and dazed countenances of everyone who has been arrested that week, a parade of mug shots with criminal charges listed below each picture. In the Triangle, Charlotte or Triad areas, the tabloid is The Slammer, published by Isaac Cornetti of Raleigh, a 30-something entrepreneur who says he's trying to entertain and inform. But in Pitt County, a tabloid called the Jailbird that bills itself as "your local weekly mugshot newspaper," was until recently was owned by two Greenville defense attorneys.

Tagged with: Advertising Criminal Practice Ethics Ethics Committee

After years of discussion, the N.C. State Bar will begin gathering information about the race, gender and age of its members this spring in a new effort to measure the diversity of attorneys throughout the state. Susan Dotson-Smith, past president of the N.C. Association of Women Attorneys, said her organization was pleased that the measure is moving ahead. "It is difficult to measure how accessible the profession is for all people when you don't know how many people are women or people of color," she said.

Tagged with: N.C. State Bar