North Carolina Lawyers Weekly articles from April 2004

North Carolina Lawyers Weekly archives from April 2004

North Carolina lawyer Ralph Madison Stockton Jr. dies at age 76.
April 5, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Winston-Salem lawyer Ralph Madison Stockton Jr., 76, died on March 26 after months of illness. A resident of Winston-Salem for most of his life, he achieved an undergraduate degree in 1948...

North Carolina Bar Association gives lawyer Frank C. Laney the Peace Award.
April 5, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff The dispute resolution section of the North Carolina Bar Association has given Cary lawyer Frank C. Laney the Peace Award, established for the advancement of peaceful resolution of disputes. This...

North Carolina Lawyers In The News: April 5, 2004.
April 5, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Robert A. Wicker, formerly vice-president and general counsel for Greensboro-based Burlington Industries and its subsidiary, Nano-Tex, has joined Helms Mulliss & Wicker in the Raleigh office....

North Carolina Supreme Court approves new mediation rules.
April 5, 2004... Byline: Michael Dayton Lawyers who mediate trial court cases should be aware of new reporting and scheduling rules approved March 4 by the state Supreme Court. The amendments clarify how scheduling conflicts should be resolved and...

N.C. Industrial Commission Court Case Summaries: April 5, 2004.
April 5, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Workers Compensation Causation - Back Pain - Auto Accident - Driving Restrictions - Routing Specialist Even though the plaintiff suffered a trapezius spasm, a mild contusion to her...

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Case Summaries: April 5, 2004.
April 5, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Bankruptcy Automatic Stay - Willful Violation - Punitive Damages - Personal Items Destroyed Where the creditor knew of the automatic stay and nevertheless twice changed the locks on the...

U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Case Summaries: April 5, 2004.
April 5, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Rights First Amendment - Internet Speech - Va. Statute A Virginia statute that purports to regulate Internet content that is "harmful" to juveniles violates the First Amendment and...

Notice deadline trips up removal of consumer class action suit despite U.S. Supreme Court decision.
April 5, 2004... Byline: Ertel Berry A mortgage lender has lost its chance to remove a consumer class action to federal court, even though a new U.S. Supreme Court opinion said that right existed. The defendant argued the removal notice was filed...

North Carolina law firm ranks high in commercial mortgage backed securities.
April 5, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP continued its commanding performance in the commercial mortgage backed securities, (CMBS) market in 2003, capturing the top spots in the rankings as both issuer...

U.S. Middle District Court Case Summaries: April 5, 2004.
April 5, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Subject Matter Jurisdiction - Rooker-Feldman Doctrine - Arbitration - Banks & Banking - ATM Fees - Class Action Where the plaintiff previously filed a similar action in...

Verdicts & Settlements April 5, 2004: NCDOT pays $1.56M to condemn I-95 gas station.
April 5, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff The NCDOT condemned an entire 3.672-acre site located at the Interstate 95 and Keen Road interchange near Four Oaks. This site was being used as a gas station, tire and wrecker service, and...

North Carolina Industrial Commission denies electrician's accidental injury benefits.
April 5, 2004... Byline: Ertel Berry An electrician who tore up a shoulder pulling wire out of a conduit in a cramped ceiling was hurt performing a routine task -- defeating his claim for accidental injury benefits, the Industrial Commission has ruled. ...

N.C. Industrial Commission awards workers' comp for logger's killing over work dispute.
April 5, 2004... Byline: Ertel Berry A logger who was shot and killed when an argument with a co-worker turned violent died in the course and scope of his employment, the Industrial Commission has ruled. The assault at a Halifax County logging site was...

Verdicts & Settlements April 5, 2004: N.C. wreck victims recover $1.02M for personal injuries.
April 5, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Mother and daughter were traveling in a residential area of Durham when a van driven by a vacuum cleaner salesman ran a stop sign causing a collision. The daughter received minor injuries. The...

Building a solo practice: an interview with Jay Reeves.
April 12, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Can you provide us with information about your background? I've been licensed to practice since 1981. During that time, I had two unique jobs that were wonderful training -- a reporter and editor...

North Carolina Supreme Court upholds statutory cap on punitive damages.
April 12, 2004... Byline: Michael Dayton The Supreme Court has approved the constitutionality of a statute that cut a Gastonia couple's punitive damages award against K-Mart from $23 million to $250,000 each. The ruling means the couple, who were...

Charlotte lawyer Russell M. Robinson win CASE award.
April 12, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Russell M. Robinson II, founding partner of Charlotte's Robinson, Bradshaw and Hinson, has received the Commonfund Institutionally Related Foundation Award, presented by the Council for...

North Carolina Lawyers In The News: April 12, 2004.
April 12, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Cindy Rothschild, based in Kilpatrick Stockton's Winston-Salem office, was the recipient of the North Carolina Bar Association's 2003 Outstanding Achievement Pro Bono Award given by the...

N.C. Industrial Commission Court Case Summaries: April 12, 2004.
April 12, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Domestic Relations Parent & Child - Parental Rights - Termination - Foster Care - Insufficient Progress Where the evidence showed that (1) it took the respondent-mother at least a year--...

February North Carolina bar exam passing rate hovers at 50 percent.
April 12, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff For the third year in a row, the number of successful applicants on the February bar exam hovered around 50 percent. The pool of applicants for the winter 2004 test was one of the largest on...

North Carolina Supreme Court declines to hear diverted attention case.
April 12, 2004... Byline: Ertel Berry The Supreme Court will not review a holding that excused a Elkin motorist's failure to see a train approaching because she was distracted by a confusing stop sign. That case, which upheld application of the...

N.C. Court of Appeals affirms denial of fees for auto wreck plaintiff.
April 12, 2004... Byline: Ertel Berry A trial judge didn't have to award legal fees to an auto accident plaintiff, even though her jury verdict was twice the defendant's Rule 68 offer of judgment, the Appeals Court ruled April 6. The decision in House...

U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Case Summaries: April 12, 2004.
April 12, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Immigration - Deportation - Adjustment Rescission - Limitations The Board of Immigration Appeals did not err in ordering petitioner's deportation; the expiration of a...

Verdicts & Settlements April 12, 2004: N.C. arbitrators award $1.49M for wreck injuries.
April 12, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Brief statement of claim: Plaintiff was a 30-year-old school teacher ejected from passenger side of husband's truck at an intersection collision. She taught for several more years after her MVA...

N.C. Court of Appeals rules close temporal link not needed for employee's REDA lawsuit.
April 12, 2004... Byline: Ertel Berry A Waffle House worker who said she was fired in retaliation for a comp claim could sue for job discrimination -- even though she couldn't show a "close temporal relationship" between the comp action and the termination,...

N.C. Supreme Court Case Summaries: April 12, 2004.
April 12, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Attorneys Fees - Tort/Negligence - Personal Injury - $9500 Verdict - Costs & Prejudgment Interest Added Where, in his dissent, Judge Tyson reasoned that prejudgment interest is...

Verdicts & Settlements April 12, 2004: N.C. quadriplegic gets $1.045M in workers' comp claim.
April 12, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Workers' compensation claim clinched. Employee was injured in a logging accident when a limb broke out of a tree and swung down, hitting the employee in the right forehead and knocking him to the...

N.C. Court of Appeals rules motorist not negligent despite crosswalk collision.
April 19, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Even though a Charlotte motorist hit two pedestrians in a marked crosswalk, that didn't prove he breached a statutory duty to yield to them, the Appeals Court has held. The reason: according...

N.C. Court of Appeals rules notice to insurer not needed for service.
April 19, 2004... Byline: Ertel Berry A Union County accident plaintiff didn't have to contact the defendant's auto insurance carrier before resorting to notice of service by publication, the Appeals Court has held. Although due diligence required the...

N.C. Unpublished Court of Appeals Case Summaries: April 19, 2004.
April 19, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Service of Process - Publication - Due Diligence - Default Even though the plaintiff did not sent a copy of the summons and complaint to the defendant's insurance carrier,...

U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Case Summaries: April 19, 2004.
April 19, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Medicare Reimbursement - Inpatient Acute Care -'Disproportionate Share Adjustment' The Secretary of Health & Human Service's interpretation of an ambiguous regulation,...

North Carolina Judge Allsbrook portrait to be presented to Halifax County.
April 19, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Members of the Halifax County Bar will present a portrait of Judge Richard B. Allsbrook to the county, to be hung in the Superior Courtroom on Friday, April 23 at 3:00 p.m. Judge Allsbrook...

Federal judge reverses denial of ERISA disability benefits.
April 19, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff A Wake County hospital technician who suffered unpredictable dizzy spells, falls and nausea from a rare disease should not have been denied private disability benefits, a federal judge has ruled....

Verdicts & Settlements April 19, 2004: N.C. van passenger gets $1M for wreck injuries.
April 19, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff The evidence showed: On Oct. 2, 2001, 24-year-old Allen Tillman was on his way to a regional center in Charlotte to join the Air Force to do his part after "9/11." He joined a group of 11 other...

Verdicts & Settlements April 19, 2004: N.C. investors recover $81,500 for investment losses.
April 19, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff The defendant claimed he was not a "seller" under the N.C. Securities Act, but only received referral fees for prospects. The issues included (1) statute of limitations -- when plaintiffs should...

North Carolina attorney Edmund O. Kenion dies at age 78.
April 19, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Edmund O. Kenion of Candor, 78, died Feb. 20, Lawyers Weekly has learned. Born in Hillsborough, he was a 1951 graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Law. He began law practice...

North Carolina Lawyers In The News: April 19, 2004.
April 19, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Walter Boyd has joined the business practice group in Smith Moore's Greens-boro office, where he concentrates in intellectual property law with a special emphasis on patents in the chemical and...

N.C. Court of Appeals rules no reasonable suspicion needed to approach stopped car.
April 19, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff A Hyde County deputy sheriff did not need reasonable suspicion to approach a motorist who had already stopped his Jeep in an Ocracoke parking lot, the Appeals Court has ruled. The deputy...

U.S. Eastern District Court Case Summaries: April 19, 2004.
April 19, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Insurance Labor & Employment - Disability - ERISA Plan - Standard of Review - Vertigo Where the decision to grant disability benefits was purely subjective, the plan administrator was...

Verdicts & Settlements April 19, 2004: N.C. med-mal suit settles for $300K.
April 19, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff had hysterectomy and bladder tuck procedures in June 2001. In late September 2001, patient began having abdominal pain and returned to hospital where x-ray revealed the retained sponge....

U.S. Eastern District Court Case Summaries: April 26, 2004.
April 26, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Pre- Filing Injunction - Civil Rights - Pro Se Plaintiff Where (1) the plaintiff has an undisputed history of generally unsuccessful state and federal litigation; (2) the...

U.S. Western District Court Case Summaries: April 26, 2004.
April 26, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Labor & Employment Public Employees - Civil Rights - Retaliation - Sex Harassment Case - Willing Witness - Constitutional - Free Speech Where, after the plaintiff expressed willingness to...

Verdicts & Settlements April 26, 2004: N.C. motorist recovers $695K in stop-sign accident.
April 26, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Defendant-decedent was driving the "family purpose" vehicle and had the express permission of its owner, his father. Plaintiff contended the negligence of the defendant-decedent was imputed to...

North Carolina Judge Russell J. Lanier dies at age 80.
April 26, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Judge Russell J. Lanier of Beulaville died April 18 at age 80. Born in Duplin County, he entered Wake Forest College in 1941, and enlisted in the Navy in 1943. After the war, he returned to...

Raleigh attorney Paul Martin Newby candidacy reaches financing goal.
April 26, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Raleigh attorney Paul Martin Newby, a candidate for the North Carolina Supreme Court seat being vacated by Justice Robert Orr, announced last week that his campaign had already met the...

North Carolina Lawyers In The News: April 26, 2004.
April 26, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff J. Lee Lloyd, special counsel in the Greensboro office of Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, will speak on the topic of finding capital at an upcoming continuing education program for...

N.C. Court of Appeals rules contempt clause in Ch. 75 consent order unenforceable.
April 26, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff A consent order that resolved an aircraft repair dispute in Union County couldn't be enforced by contempt, even though the order stated that was a remedy, the Appeals Court ruled April 20. ...

N.C. Court of Appeals rules domestic violence laws not basis for coman claim.
April 26, 2004... Byline: Ertel Berry An Asheville bus driver who was discharged after his wife shot him couldn't claim the firing violated public policy -- even though several statutes are aimed at helping domestic violence victims, the Appeals Court held...

N.C.-based law firm Hardison and Leone contributes to mock trial competition.
April 26, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff The Raleigh-based law firm of Hardison & Leone is making a major donation to fund the 2005 National High School Mock Trial Championships, the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers announced in a release....

Winston-Salem lawyer admits theft of $2.5M could mean assessment for all attorneys.
April 26, 2004... Byline: Michael Dayton Winston-Salem lawyer Zachary T. Bynum III last week turned in his law license after admitting he took at least $2.5 million from clients, lenders -- and his own father's estate. Bynum's misconduct is likely to...

N.C. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: April 26, 2004.
April 26, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Contempt - Consent Judgment - Settlement Contract Even though the parties' consent judgment specifically provided that it was enforceable by contempt, since the consent...

N.C. jury awards welder $800K in med-mal suit for partial loss of vision.
April 26, 2004... Byline: Ertel Berry A Catawba jury has awarded $800,000 to a welder who claimed complications from a botched cornea repair left him with 20/200 vision in one eye. The plaintiff's attorney, Clifford Britt of Winston-Salem, said the...

U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Case Summaries: April 26, 2004.
April 26, 2004... Byline: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Admiralty COGSA - Limits of Liability Where a mobile drilling rig being shipped from Baltimore to a port in Chile was severely damaged after it was offloaded at an intermediate port in...