How Does a Family Court Determine If a Parent Is Unfit?

Posted on October 29, 2021

Family courts in North Carolina can remove a child from an unfit parent if they have credible proof that the parent has abused or neglected the child or has addiction or substance abuse issues. Sometimes during divorce proceedings, one parent will accuse the other of being an unfit parent. The general standard...

Can a Child Sue for Child Support?

Posted on September 27, 2021

There are very limited circumstances in which a child can sue a parent to collect child support. Typically, the custodial parent is the one who goes to court to enforce an order of child support that the non-custodial parent has not paid. The advice of a lawyer can be...

How Are Military Divorces Different Than Civilian Divorces?

Posted on September 24, 2021

The term “military divorce” can confuse many people who assume incorrectly that a military divorce happens in the military court system, but it does not. A military divorce merely means that one or both spouses are members of the armed forces. The dissolution of marriage proceeding will take place in a...

How Is Child Custody Determined in North Carolina?

Posted on August 18, 2021

Parents in North Carolina are allowed to reach an agreement about custody of their children in a divorce, separation, or paternity action. A judge will have to approve of the arrangement and find that the terms are in the best interest and welfare of the child. When the parents...

What Does No-Fault Divorce Mean?

Posted on August 4, 2021

Many states, including North Carolina, have adopted laws for no-fault divorces. Instead of requiring a spouse to prove marital misconduct to obtain a divorce, the courts may grant an absolute divorce for no other cause than a spouse wants to end the marriage. However, marital misconduct may affect the...

Stacked

Posted on September 28, 2020

In Federal Court, if a defendant is charged with a violent crime or a drug trafficking offense, and possesses a firearm “in furtherance” thereof, not only does the defendant get a sentence for the underling violent crime or drug offense, but a mandatory consecutive sentence of 5, 7 or even 10 years. ...

Conceptual image of waving American flag and Statue of Liberty over sky in New York

Living in the Future

Posted on September 11, 2020

Where to begin? Since our last blog submission, the world has gone from the beginning of a pandemic scare, to a world on fire. Writing this on the 19th Anniversary of 9/11, the red-lined acceleration of world changes since that infamous day feels only that much more prescient over the course of...

COURTS OPEN THIS WEEK

Posted on June 1, 2020

After careful consideration by our state and local court leaders, North Carolina Courts resume an abridged but steady course of business this week—June 1, 2020. Judges, the District Attorney’s Office, Court personnel, County leaders, and Sheriffs and law enforcement, have worked very hard to establish procedures to keep you and others safe. ...

When will Courts Reopen?

Posted on May 18, 2020

We would love to use this Blog entry to give you an update as to when courts will reopen, when defendants can face trial or resolve matters, when domestic situations can be worked out or at least litigated before a judge, when property disputes can be settled, damages ordered, and wills and...

Jaheim Webster winner of scholarship with attorneys

The Places Jaheim Will Go

Posted on May 15, 2020

This is the time of year when typically, bookstores cannot keep Dr. Seuss’s iconic and timeless tale Oh, the places You’ll Go on the shelves. They are, for good reason, a go to gift for a young high school graduate setting out to face adulthood and all the peaks and valleys that come...

I was just…gestur’n…

Posted on May 4, 2020

On 9 January 2017, a day after Elvis’s Birthday (and my mom’s), a North Carolina State Trooper kindly responded to a stranded motorist who had run out of gas. It was winter in Stanley County, North Carolina, and it was cold. The Trooper, with the assistance...

You All Count

Posted on April 27, 2020

12 In the Box – You All Count As we try to reasonably exist in the socially distant Covid-sphere, we feel as though our lives are frozen—or substantially stalled. But, the world remains, and great change is before us, and some change will likely prove to be very corrective. And so, the...