Even before the current recession, courts in North Carolina were struggling to deal with a steady growth in the number of people trying to navigate the judicial system without the aid of an attorney. The uptick in pro se ...

Tagged with: domestic violence

The legal needs of domestic violence victims can be complicated, especially if they’ve had to flee an abusive situation under extreme duress. From child custody to immigration issues, domestic violence victims have legal needs that go beyond the criminal case of their alleged abusers.

Tagged with: domestic violence

  A domestic violence attack that caused the victim to lose sight in one eye for a week and suffer impaired vision for two weeks was sufficient to support a conviction for assault inflicting serious bodily that “creates or causes ...

Tagged with: domestic violence

Domestic violence victims petitioning for a protective order will need to include any alleged acts of domestic violence in writing in their complaints, or else lose the right to introduce them as evidence, the North Carolina Court of Appeals has ...

Tagged with: domestic violence

Previously convicted domestic violence offenders who are accused of killing their victims could more easily be found guilty of first-degree murder and possibly face the ultimate punishment under a new law in North Carolina. On July 11, Gov. Roy Cooper ...

Tagged with: domestic violence

North Carolina’s long-arm statute doesn’t empower courts to issue domestic violence protective orders in cases where they lack personal jurisdiction over the defendant, the state’s Court of Appeals has ruled in a case of first impression. Ashley Mannise filed a ...

Tagged with: domestic violence jurisdiction

State v. Williams (Lawyers Weekly No. 011-152-16, 9 pp.) (Mark Davis, J.) Appealed from Burke County Superior Court (Joseph Crosswhite, J.) N.C. App. Holding: Even though defendant did not enter the domestic violence safe house to which his girlfriend had ...

Tagged with: domestic violence

“This is a domestic violence court. Not pet rescue,” Wake County District Court Judge V.A. “Woofer” Davidian told the young couple seated at separate tables facing his bench. Observers in the gallery had begun whispering when the pair’s case was ...

Tagged with: domestic violence

Hernandez-Zavala v. Lynch (Lawyers Weekly No. 15-01-1075, 19 pp.) (Duncan, J.) No. 14-1878, Nov. 20, 2015; On Petition for Review; 4th Cir. Holding: The 4th Circuit upholds a Board of Immigration Appeals decision that substantial record evidence indicated petitioner committed ...

Tagged with: domestic violence

U.S. v. Vinson (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-167-15, 15 pp.) (Traxler, J.) No. 14-4078, Nov. 3, 2015; USDC at Raleigh, N.C. (Flanagan, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: On rehearing of its decision ordering reinstatement of a firearms charge based on a prior ...

Tagged with: domestic violence